San Diego City Wire

Nine years after writing her first food security-related grant for services upon which she also relied, Community Through Hope Executive Director and Founder Rosy Vasquez easily identifies with the community she serves, The San Diego Foundation recently reported.

"There’s not a big difference between you and me," Rosy said to one client who asked her why she knew so much, the foundation said in a Jan. 5 post. "This time around, I’m on this side – who knows? Maybe next time you’re going to help me."

Vasquez's first written food security-related grant application was for a program formerly known as "Fresh To Families," Chula Vista Charitable Foundation funded that program, which later became Project Nutrition, now a Community Through Hope program supported by the foundation this year with a $32,000 grant from its COVID-19 Community Response Fund.

Community Through Hope, a regional hub of Feeding San Diego, is a nonprofit that grew from a grassroots organization to food insecurity and to assist the unsheltered in greater Chula Vista and South Bay.

Since March, Community Through Hope has fed about 30,000 people a month and distributed more than 5 million pounds of food, according to the foundation's post. Before the pandemic, Community Through Hope fed about 5,000 people per month.

Almost a third of Community Through Hope’s new clients in the pandemic are experiencing food insecurity for the first time, according to the foundation's post.

"We’re truly meant to be here on this Earth to help other people," Vasquez said in the post. "Now more than ever, fellow San Diegans need our help."

Since the pandemic descended over the nation, Community Through Hope volunteers have logged 40,000 hours. A third of Community Through Hope’s all-volunteer 15-person team are former clients, according to the post.

Throughout the pandemic, Community Through Hope has functioned as an emergency nutrition and diaper bank sit, in addition to drive-thru and walk-up emergency services and other services, including weekly deliveries to seniors.

Community Through Hope gave out more than 200 Turkeys, dinner sides and pies this past Thanksgiving and County Supervisor Greg Cox visited Community Through Hope during his final days in office.

Donations to the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund support area nonprofits, including Community Through Hope.