James H. Jackson Jr., Point Loma resident for almost 40 years and a former Point Loma Nazarene University history professor of 20 years, has been appointed to head up the San Diego Food Bank as executive director.
Jackson is the first to take the position since the food bank became an independent organization July 1. For the last 30 years, the food bank operated under the Neighborhood House Association, Jackson said.
He was selected by a committee made up of San Diego Food Bank board members.
As a former president and CEO of the San Diego Rescue Mission, Jackson brings extensive experience in the nonprofit sector to the food bank. During his time with the rescue mission, Jackson managed an agency that helped feed and support San Diego’s poorest and homeless populations.
Jackson must now guide the 23-employee organization, which was plagued by a theft ring within the organization, and rebuild the food bank to make it more accountable, he said. But his main goal, he said, is to feed the thousands of San Diegans who can’t afford to eat.
“There are about 270,000 people who aren’t able to afford food tonight,” Jackson said. “One hundred and ten thousand kids who will go to bed hungry. And it’s our job to reach them.”
In order to feed the hungry, the San Diego Food Bank acts as a collector and distributor of food, working through 260 agencies such as the rescue mission to meet the “food insecurity” needs of the hungry, Jackson said.
The food bank holds food drives and receives donations from large companies. It then distributes the food to various nonprofit organizations and member agencies. The agencies purchase the food at about 20 cents per pound, which covers costs and wages, he said.
The food bank distributes about 11 million pounds of food each year from its 70,000-square-foot warehouse in Mira Mesa.
While working primarily with nonprofit organizations and churches, Jackson said, the food bank’s doors are open to one-time, individual applications for food.
“When you have hungry people at your door, what are you going to do?” he said.
After giving a person food, he said the food bank refers them to a member agency to help meet their specific needs.
Among his many accomplishments, Jackson is a recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year Alonzo Award in 2004 and the Zanville Award from the United Way of San Diego in 2002.
Jackson is also involved in several community organizations, including sitting as chair of the downtown Community Court Advisory Committee and co-chair of the city’s East Village Homeless Redevelopment Committee. He is involved in several committees of the San Diego Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, according to a statement released by the food bank.
As CEO for the rescue mission for about seven and half years, Jackson said he developed a working relationship with agencies involved with downtown redevelopment that will help him make the San Diego Food Bank into a model organization.
“It was very gratifying to have the opportunity to help improve the standard of living, the quality of life for all San Diegans,” he said.
Jackson takes over the organization as it attempts to rebuild itself after hard times. In 2005, an internal theft ring was exposed, donations were reduced and the organization lost its status as a Second Harvest affiliate that year, according to reports from the San Diego Union-Tribune. The national food charity, Second Harvest, donated millions of pounds of food per year.
Jackson said he will work to restore accountability to the food bank operations.