Serving Up Kindness
San Diego County nonprofits have long diversified their funding sources with local donations, private and public grants, fundraiser events, and volunteer programs. But federal funding cuts to food assistance programs have left food pantries and families experiencing shortages and uncertainty. Give thanks for what you have by helping feed your neighbors. Volunteering your time builds connection, joy, and a stronger community. Here are unique opportunities to get involved and support San Diegans experiencing food insecurity.
Share Companionship and a Hot Meal with Seniors
Volunteering with Meals on Wheels is a meaningful commitment filled with heart that breaks the loneliness plaguing many isolated seniors in our community.
Drivers are always needed. If you volunteer, there are a few things you should know. For safety, the organization requires a background check. Drivers should be able to commit to at least one delivery per month, each taking about one to two hours and serving about a dozen seniors. Routes are assigned close to your home or workplace, and drivers are needed Monday through Saturday.
Another great way to get involved—especially for families and youth groups—is by assembling We Care Bags filled with fun and useful items and handwritten cards to brighten a senior’s day.
» meals-on-wheels.org/volunteer
Lend a Hand Toward Hope
Solutions for Change works to break the cycle of homelessness using an individualized approach that tackles root problems and empowers its clients. At the campus in Vista, families enroll in a two-year program that teaches valuable skills to end the cycle of poverty.
Groups of any age can volunteer to prepare and serve dinner for new program residents. You’ll spend a couple hours making a homemade meal or ordering catering and serving approximately 20 people. Check out their calendar and sign up for a date that suits your schedule.
» solutionsforchange.org
Work Behind the Scenes
Most large food banks don’t set aside and stock specialty foods for people with dietary restrictions. Porchlight Community Services in Kearny Mesa is different. Clients book appointments to shop for food based on dietary needs. Founded in 2016 by a single mom, this organization rescues imperfect groceries and excess prepared meals, many of them vegan and gluten-free. Their clients include senior citizens and families on a limited budget.
Volunteers help organize and restock shelves, pick up excess food from local businesses, and assist remotely with clerical duties. Looking for a more active role? You can also host community shopping days by providing a friendly, smooth shopping experience for clients.
Cook from the Heart
If cooking fills you with joy, Lasagna Love offers the fulfilling opportunity to make lasagna for a neighbor facing hard times. It’s the perfect act of service for a family or group. “Lasagna Love allowed our troop to give back to the community in a personal and heartfelt way. We especially enjoyed learning new kitchen skills while making meals that brought comfort to others,” said Jillian Moran, Girl Scout 4162 troop leader.
This flexible volunteer opportunity is ideal for busy people. Cooks register online, select how often they’d like to prepare a meal (at least once a month), how far they’re willing to drive, and whether they can meet specific dietary needs. Coordinators match volunteers with families and help schedule contact-free drop-off of a ready-to-eat dish or one to reheat.
Volunteer Outdoors
Spend a Saturday in a North County backyard or orchard picking citrus from overloaded trees. Harvested fruit is donated to over 60 local nonprofits for community distribution. Produce Good recovers fresh produce, diverts it from landfills, and delivers it to where it’s needed most.
There are many ways to help:
* Growers can donate fruit by having a bumper crop of unused fruit picked by volunteers
* Volunteer to pick fruit (all ages welcome)
* Be a Market Share Helper by rescuing excess food from farmers’ markets or local grocery stores
* Donate monthly gifts to provide steady support
Beyond San Diego
Hardworking people who put food on our tables are facing fear and uncertainty. World Harvest Charities is seeking donations to deliver groceries to restaurant and farm workers and others in need.
» worldharvestfoodbank.org
JOIN THE GIFTING ECONOMY
What is it?
The giving of goods or services without expectation of monetary compensation. The focus is purely on giving for its own sake. There’s no expectation of giving or receiving a certain amount. Just the act of sharing is enough.
How is it beneficial?
The act of giving and receiving builds relationships and creates a sense of community.
It reduces waste in landfills. Reusing, repairing, and repurposing saves resources.
Why participate in a gifting economy?
Three reasons to participate in gifting:
1. Get to know neighbors better, be neighborly
2. Save money
3. Try to buy what we truly need and look for secondhand or locally made items first
What does it look like in your neighborhood?
* Filling a basket in your front yard near the sidewalk with extra produce from your garden for anyone to take for free
* Making jam from a bumper crop and sharing
* Hosting Little Free Libraries and pantries
* Participating in seed swaps or seed libraries at local libraries, community gardens, and nonprofits
* Joining or organizing clothing swaps
What does it look like online?
* Buy Nothing groups on Facebook
* Blogs and social media where experts share their research and learned experiences without links to purchase any products
LOCAL EXAMPLES OF A GROWING GIFTING ECONOMY
No More Markets
Founded this year, the group holds monthly gifting events at Freedom Park in North Park. People bring items they don’t use anymore and share their skills. The concept was a bit of an experiment, but one that’s taking off.
With the tagline of ”We don’t want to pay anymore!” No More Markets aims to decommodify our value systems, decenter money, and prevent waste and exclusion. “The idea is if everyone is giving, everyone is getting,” states Madison Victoria, who hosts a Poetry Corner at No More Markets. One of many who offer services at the event, she writes original pieces for free or swap. “Some people get poems as gifts. I don’t expect anything in return. All I hope is that the poem resonates, that it becomes a meaningful keepsake.” Other resources at the market include a hand-sewing and mending area, flower arranging, political zines, and karaoke.
» @nomoremarkets on Instagram
Humble design
This nonprofit custom designs and furnishes homes to create a fresh start for people emerging from homelessness. Locals donate furnishings and talent in painting, repairing furniture, sewing, and more.
Solana Center for Environmental Innovation
Solana Center’s tool lending program supports home community and school gardens by lending lesser-used and pricey items.
» solanacenter.org/tool-lending-library
GRATITUDE IS NOT DEPENDENT UPON A SINGLE SEASON
BY KATHLEEN SCOVONE AND MILLIE SIMONE
Republished from News from Native Cailfornia, Spring 2025
WE HAD A DISCUSSION REVOLVING AROUND GRATITUDE WHILE SPENDING TIME NEAR THE FLOWING WATERS OF BRADFORD CREEK. Millie was accurate in her belief that the feeling of gratitude or thankfulness isn’t contingent upon a specific time of year. Of course the acorn gathering and blackberry picking of fall are bountiful and welcome, but, we concurred, there are so many more reasons to hold gratitude in our hearts than that of the foods of fall. Rocks, stars, and water can all be our teachers. We breathe the air of bluebirds and give thanks for all of those seemingly ordinary daily occurrences. Sky gives us oceans of clouds, creating pictures high above for all to read. Sky is also a trickster as it hides galaxies with its mysterious stars, interstellar gases, and dark matter.
There are a host of reasons to love each and every season. The kaleidoscope of fall’s colors as it spotlights the hills and valleys on frosty fall mornings, creating scarlet and golden flora, is welcome and amazing to behold. The process of life renewing itself, which begins with the coins of foliage falling back to Earth to start again the progression of decomposition, with its hints of earthy scents that signal to us the enduring cycle of life, is heartily greeted.
We will welcome and acknowledge winter’s darker tones, and receive with open arms the gloomy clouds that are actually rain relief in the making. When those cloudbursts saturate the countryside with the pitter-patter of rain clapping its standing ovation, we will thrill in the bounty of winter.
Spring always finds its way home again to arouse hope and happiness with its plentiful life and radiance. Then our star the sun incites growth spurts, with fresh life in all of its many forms enveloping us with promise. Sooner than we realize it, the lengthy, lazy days of summer’s long months entice us to slow down and enjoy the glittering lakes and cooling streams, with their life-giving waters. Sacred places surround us all year long, allowing us to carry these spaces as songs in our hearts. The longer we live in the bounty of the world, the more grateful we become.
Originally published in issue 79.
Cherie Gough
Cherie Gough is an award-winning freelance writer based in San Diego. She is passionate about food equity and loves writing about innovative people finding positive solutions. Find her on Instagram @cgoughwrites.
Illustrations by Brenda Townsend, an award-winning muralist, CA-credentialed arts educator, and the owner of Brilliant Spectrum Art. Her newest mural commissioned by the City of Escondido, Hummingbird Jubilee, can be viewed in downtown Escondido at Maple Street Plaza. Brenda enjoys teaching all types of art classes for adults and youth in her North County home studio, swimming, reading, and eating her way around San Diego.
