Feeding San Diego explains the impact of high gas prices on fueling fleet & food rescue

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Gas prices in San Diego County have dipped slightly this week.

But the costs it takes to fill up a fuel tank are getting quite pricey for some food banks.

“We kind of have a triple whammy going on with the fuel situation,” Patty O’Connor, Chief Operating Officer for Feeding San Diego, said.

O’Connor said the first big hit with the current gas prices is bringing the food into Feeding San Diego’s food distribution center.

“We bring about 2 million pounds a month here, and a lot of that is, most of that is rescued food, but we still have to pay for the freight that cost us over $100,000 last month just in freight to bring that in,” O’Connor said.

The organization also sends that food out to the community by truck and by van.

“Every day you’ll see our bright orange trucks going out into the community. We do about 25 deliveries a day, but about 480 over the course of a month, and if you can imagine that costs a lot of money,” O’Connor said.

“In fact, last month, that cost us about $32,000 in just fuel costs. We rely on diesel fuel, and that was twice as much as it was a year ago.”

It’s not only more expensive to fuel the trucks delivering the food, but it’s also more expensive to keep what’s inside them cool.

“And then when we’re loading and unloading, we need to make sure that the trucks are running so that we can keep the food food-safe. So that’s a whole other part of this process that we are managing,” O’Connor said.

Feeding San Diego told ABC 10News they’ve heard from some partners that are on the food rescue side of things that it’s more expensive to drive to pick up those products. So they’ve been able to give some of those partners gas cards to pay for their gas to get food to the community that needs it.

“We look to the community to support us, and so far, um, San Diegans are generous, and they have been generous, and we really do need to continue that generosity so that we can support the struggling families throughout the county,” O’Connor said. “And whatever we can do to support those families, we are going to do so.”