Established in 1977, the San Diego Food Bank provides food and services to more than 340,000 individuals each month. The people who turn to the San Diego Food Bank for help are children, families, seniors and the working poor. Of the 3.1 million residents in San Diego County over 483,000 people live at or near the federal poverty level and face the threat of hunger. 273,000 are children. Hunger or "food insecurity" means households face times when they do not know if they will have enough food, or do not know how they will get their next meal.

• The San Diego Food Bank distributed 13.8 million pounds of food in San Diego County in 2009, the equivalent of 10.8 million meals.
• 48 percent of people served by the Food Bank are under the age of 18.
• 16 percent are children ages five years and younger.
• 22 percent are senior citizens.
• 50 percent of households served have at least one adult employed in a low-income job.

• According to the Center on Hunger and Poverty, over 5 million Californians are food insecure, with over 1.2 million of those individuals experiencing hunger.
  
• In 2005, 30% of the state’s low-income adults experienced food insecurity.
  
• In 2004, California ranked as the 15th worst state for food insecurity by the USDA. California is above the national average in percentage of households living under these conditions.
  
• Nearly 3 million children in California are eligible to receive free or reduced priced school meals.

• In 2007, 36.2 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 23.8 million adults and 12.4 million children.
• In 2007, 11.1 percent of households (13 million households) were food insecure, a statistically insignificant increase from 10.9 percent (12.6 million households) in 2006.
• In 2007, 4.1 percent of households (4.7 million households) experienced very low food security, a statistically insignificant increase from 4 percent in 2006.
• In 2007, households with children reported food insecurity at almost double the rate for those without children, 15.8 percent compared to 8.7 percent.
• In 2007, households that were more likely to experience food insecurity were households with children (15.8%), households with children headed by single women (30.2 percent) or single men (18 percent), households with incomes below the poverty line (37.7 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (22.2 percent) and Hispanic households (20.1 percent).
• In 2007, 6.5 percent of households with seniors (1.7 million households) were food insecure (low food security and very low food security), a statistically significant increase from 6 percent (1.5 million households) in 2006.