Wednesday morning, volunteers with The Community Food Connection in Poway unloaded boxes of donated fruits, vegetables, bread and other items to give away to people in need.
The volunteers told NBC 7 there are usually a lot more boxes.
The nonprofit gets a lot of its donations from local grocery stores, and since the stores are having tough time keeping food on the shelves, they don't have nearly as much to give away.
At the same time, the need is growing.
Brian Cooper has been volunteering at The Community Food Connection for more than a year.
He said in that time, they've gone from feeding roughly 40 families three times a week to 150 families.
And that was before the Coronavirus pandemic.
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"Now with the virus, donations coming to us are very low," Cooper said. "Timing is poor. Volunteers are sick and afraid, so all in all, it's become a tough situation."
Fortunately, Wednesday afternoon, the organization received a big donation from Feeding San Diego.
"Three pallets of food, 500 families-worth of food," Cooper said.
That food will be handed out to San Diegans in need from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at their location right behind Trinity Church on Twin Peaks Road in Poway.
"We just want to bless as many people as we can that maybe are less fortunate, or maybe just haven't had time to get to the store, or there's just some issues," said Todd Corrigan, lead pastor of Trinity Church.
Fighting back tears, Cooper said he and the rest of the volunteers will do everything they can to help.
“The call went out a year and a half ago to be a driver, and I started with that, and as I saw the need grow - that’s why I’m here," Cooper said.
The Community Food Connection hands out food every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening.
Feeding San Diego will be sponsoring additional emergency food distribution events throughout San Diego County each day.
Click here for the full list of locations, as well as information on how you can donate.
