The Veterans’ Resource Center, in partnership with Courage to Call and Feeding San Diego, will host a drive-thru food distribution to feed both active and retired military families struggling to put food on the table during the COVID-19 crisis.
Distribution begins on campus at 12 p.m. Saturday, April 25. It is recommended that cars line up at 10 a.m., but not earlier. Attendees will need to bring either a military ID, VA/Veterans card or a DD-214 with valid government picture ID.
Veterans’ Resource Center (VRC) Coordinator JD White said they’ve worked with Courage to Call to provide food to military families in previous years.
“In the past, we would just put it on the table and then people would just walk in through the check-in tent,” White said. “ … Then they would just walk through and pick out the food. This time with the virus and the health concerns of COVID-19, we are there doing it drive-thru style where the vehicles will have their trunks open and they’ve already been screened.”
Courage to Call is a program of Mental Health Systems of San Diego. It regularly hosts food distribution events throughout the county, and also has a 24/7 peer line.
Community liaison Jennifer Santis said the organization’s partnership with White and the VRC made working with them for the drive-thru event a no-brainer.
“We have a really great relationship with JD and Southwestern, and JD has always been a gracious host,” Santis said. “They have a great spot with their parking lot, too—we needed a nice open space to host the food distribution.”
Cars will enter campus at the H Street entrance and line up around the perimeter road to the distribution point set up near the SWCPD station. White said IDs will be checked before cars are allowed to enter.
Both SWCPD and Chula Vista Police will be on hand to direct traffic. Santis said the event could impact traffic, especially if people start lining up too early.
“We are recommending that people don’t start showing up earlier than 10 a.m. just because there’s also concerns with the traffic on H Street where the entrance is,” Santis said. “We have to have concerns and be conscientious of how that affects the regular traffic, too.”
In previous years, White said, food distribution events hosted by Courage to Call and the VRC have had about 100 participants. With so many people out of work right now, they expended their capacity.
“This time because there’s so many people in need—the veterans that are struggling to put food on the table and provide for themselves and their families—Courage to Call put in a special request to get more food than they normally get,” White said. “So we have enough food scheduled to arrive to feed 400 families.”
Feeding San Diego, a hunger-relief organization that holds ongoing food distributions throughout the county, will provide the food. Each box will contain two proteins, which could be meat, beans or peanut butter, three cans of fruits or vegetables, three prepared meals (soup, pasta, cereal, etc.), one beverage, two snacks and three-to-five types of produce.
Southwestern College hosted a similar event on April 10 for low-income families. That day’s drive-thru distribution provided some lessons, White said.
“I would advise and ask people to make sure that they have their trunk clear, that they have space in their trunk and they know how to open their trunk,” White said. “I heard from previous events that some people, the drivers, don’t know how to open their trunk.
White also suggested that people keep their cars clean and empty, if possible.
“Leave the pets at home,” White said. “(It’s) maybe not a good idea to have a whole bunch of people in the car if they can avoid it.”
Distribution begins at 12 p.m. on Saturday, April 25.
