Food insecurity is a bland term for the empty larder on the day after a loss of work, the charges for automobile repairs, or the financial demands of medical emergency. Reject this euphemism. Call it what it is: Hunger.

The pantry is desolate and your family has no food. You are hungry that day. But that day is often a week or a month or no end in sight for a bare cupboard. It is not long before hunger becomes despair and desperation. But those in such need have somewhere to turn. And those more fortunate have somewhere to help them.

El Ascension Lutheran Church Food Pantry distributes food in the parking lot of the Ascension Lutheran Church, at the corner of Zion Avenue and 51st Street, on Tuesdays and Saturdays between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and in the parking lot of the Latter Day Saints Meetinghouse, at the corner of 51st Street and Greenbriar Avenue, on the first Friday of each month during those same hours. The guests may drive their cars through the parking lot or walk up to receive their food.

At those times they offer nutritious fresh, canned, and frozen foods to those in need. In addition to their parking lot food distributions, Ascension Lutheran Church also has a curbside micro food pantry located on 51st Street (before the entrance to their parking lot). The community may stock this curbside micro food pantry with non-perishable food. All are welcome to receive food from this pantry 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In your time of need, avail yourself of the nutrition offered by the Food Pantry.

The eligibility is established by an annual household income with a maximum of:

One member – $31,936.50

Two members – $43,028.50

Three members – $54.120.50

Four members – $65,21.50

and $11,092.00 for each member beyond four.

No proof, only declaration, of income is required. The Pantry asks for some personal information, never shared, for its management records. Their concern is for their recipients’ health, not their data. The food distribution is done with the assurance of anonymity.

During 2022 the Food Pantry distributed 103,822 pounds of food, the equivalent of 86,518 meals. This work is made possible by a partnership between the Ascension Lutheran Church, Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Del Cerro Meetinghouse), Allied Community Gardens, Chinese Evangelical Church, Mira Mesa Grocery Outlet, and Aaron Ford of Poway.

This remarkable community service is done by volunteers who are unpaid and motivated only by the depth of their charity.

In order to provide additional healthy choices for their guests, the Food Pantry purchases food to supplement the food provided by the Jacobs & Cushman Food Bank. In addition to the cost of food, the Food Pantry has considerable obligations for shipping containers that store nonperishable food and refrigeration units that store perishable food.

Your support and participation are needed. You can join your neighbors to become a partner, a contributor, and a volunteer in this vital work. You can support the Food Pantry in bringing awareness to the problem of food insecurity, let us not mince words, of hunger and malnutrition to their potential clients and to the public. You can donate non-perishable food, give the Food Pantry produce from your home gardens, make a financial contribution to their work, and join the distribution crew.

Reach the Food Pantry to sign up through the following link: signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4dafaa2da7ffc70-alcmini#/ or contact them directly at: (619) 582-2623 [email protected].

The Allied Gardens/Grantville Community Council (AGGCC) can be reached and you can join its work through the Contact Us page of our website at: aggccouncil.org.

– Shain Haug is president AGGCC.