Many feeding operations that homeless San Diegans have long relied on have halted. “I’ve never seen the level of desperation we’re seeing on the streets right now,” one advocate told VOSD.
By Lisa Halverstadt and Kayla Jimenez
As the coronavirus pandemic rages through the region and most people stay home, homeless San Diegans are confronting a loss of food resources they have long relied on to survive.
Many meal operations – both organized and impromptu – have halted. Cafés and restaurants that once served as daytime refuges from the streets and in some cases, handed over free food, are no longer open. Meanwhile, promises of an influx of new shelter options largely have yet to materialize for unsheltered people in San Diego. For now, those living on the streets are mostly detached from daily news updates on the coronavirus, leading to more fear and confusion and for some, battles with hunger.
Brian Schultz, 52, who usually stays near the San Diego River in the Mission Valley area, said he and friends have on at least one occasion gone without meals for days. He estimated he’s lost 10 pounds the past few weeks as resources have dried up.
Schultz said some of his friends have struggled with exhaustion and have broken down crying.
“I am watching people I care about who are starving to death,” Schultz said.
Other homeless San Diegans also describe increasing daily struggles to access food.
Ernesto Rubalcaba, 60, who stays in the Chicano Park area, said fellow San Diegans no longer stop by with snacks or warm food that he and others once appreciated.
“That doesn’t happen at all,” Rubalcaba said.
Mike Davis, 51, said homeless San Diegans staying downtown have also struggled to cope as consistent food drop-offs – namely from church and charity groups that until recently delivered everything from fast-food burgers to packaged meals – that many had come to count on have stopped.
“A lot of people relied on that,” Davis said.
Food services that remain or that have tried to bolster their offerings to address the gap have been inundated.
The Duwara Consciousness Foundation began serving vegan burritos out of a bright orange trailer at 16th Street and Imperial Avenue in East Village every weekday in mid-March following other closures and quickly attracted hundreds of people.
After a week and half, foundation co-founder Davinder Singh said the truck began drawing 400 people a day in a line that snakes around the block. Many standing in line have reported to volunteers that they haven’t eaten in two or three days, and most ask if they can have a second burrito.
“It’s devastating,” Singh said. “It’s so sad.”
Chris Nafis, pastor of the Living Water Church of the Nazarene in East Village, said his church has teamed with the Voices of Our City Choir to try to respond to the exploding need. Together, they have increased what had been a twice-monthly food distribution to serve low-income and homeless San Diegans and a Friday food service to three times a week.
The church’s weekly Sunday night meals – which had once followed church services – have also seen a boom in demand. The last Sunday of March, 150 people showed up to stand in line – more than double the number that had come the previous Sunday.
Nafis said the church scrambled to assemble burritos, chips and apples to supplement the sandwiches it had planned to hand out that evening.
“We weren’t prepared for it,” Nafis said. “We only had 55 sandwiches.”
John Brady, director of advocacy for the choir of homeless and formerly homeless San Diegans, said growing food lines speak to homeless San Diegans’ escalating struggles.
“I’ve never seen the level of desperation we’re seeing on the streets right now,” Brady said.
