In San Diego County, 230,000 school children live in low-income households and receive free or reduced-priced meals at school, according to the San Diego Food Bank.  In addition, more than 446,000 people live below the poverty level in the county, which is $10,890 for an individual or $22,350 for a family of four.  These people face “food insecurity”, meaning they have little or no food available at home and they do not know where they will find their next meal. 

The recently elected Student Government Association (SGA) officers at the San Diego Job Corps stated they were not familiar with the term “food security”, but many had their own experience with the lack of food in their homes.  After being elected by their peers, the officers received leadership training on center.  Part of the training focused on how they could be of service to the greater San Diego community.

“Several of us had similar experiences regarding not having enough food to eat before we came to Job Corps that we agreed that a food drive would be a good community service project,” advised SGA President Ryan White. “The Food Bank’s website helped us get started and working together we organized the drive, which took place the third week in June. We wanted to exceed the normal goal of food drives, so our goal was to collect 300 pounds of food.”

The San Diego Food Bank delivered food barrels to the center, which were decorated by students in the Arts and Crafts Department and placed in locations around the center.  Students and staff members donated food items throughout the week and on the drive’s last day, students and staff were able to purchase food items at a table set up by the SGA.  

“This was the SGA’s first community service project this year and I think it was very successful,” White stated. “We exceeded our goal by collecting 319 pounds of food. It’s a good feeling to know that a lot of people will be helped by the food we collected.”