Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino Launches Summer of a Million Meals

Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino (FARSB), the regional food bank of the Inland Empire, has launched the first Summer of a Million Meals campaign following the COVID-19 outbreak, to ensure children and families across the Inland Empire can access nutritious food through the summer months.

Through the Summer of a Million Meals campaign, FARSB is asking the community to help raise critically needed funds to ensure children can receive food through summer meal programs provided by FARSB and partner charity sites.

“For far too many children, the start of summer marks the start of a long, hot, and hungry break. In fact, it’s what we refer to as the hungriest time of the year,” said Stephanie Otero, CEO at Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino.

“With so much uncertainty impacting our community, one thing should never be uncertain, and that’s access to a meal,” said Otero.

FARSB has set an ambitious $125,000 goal—enough to provide up to one million meals to children, families, seniors, and Veterans in the Inland Empire. 

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, FARSB has aided nearly 100,000 Inland Empire individuals with access to free, nutritious food in addition to filling pantries, shelves, and community kitchens at over 300 charity partner site locations, conducting over 1,800 deliveries to vulnerable residents in need of food, and hosting weekly emergency drive-through food distribution events from March to June 2020.

The Summer of a Million Meals campaign will help to raise critical funds to support the continuation of these programs and further aid the food bank in efforts to combat regional hunger.

Community members can support the Summer of a Million Meals campaign by making a gift to FARSB at www.FeedingIE.org/summerhunger or:

• Texting Orange to 71777 to make a gift 
• Attending a FARSB Warehouse Movie Night scheduled for July 25, 2020 and a TBD date in August for a small $10 donation 
• Tuning into ABC7 on July 10^th, August 7^th, and September 4^th for the Feed SoCal Friday Virtual Food Drive benefiting FARSB
• Purchasing a $5 Independence from Hunger Food Drive Bag from Grocery Outlet (2275 South Euclid Ave Ontario, California 91762) during the month of July

Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino is dedicated to the mission of alleviating hunger in the Inland Empire and will continue to announce additional events, partnerships, and campaign components through the end of Labor Day weekend, September 7, 2020.

98% of every dollar donated through the Summer of a Million Meals campaign will go towards Inland Empire food distribution programs and 100% of it will stay in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

For more information on the regional food bank serving the Inland Empire, visit www.FeedingIE.org.