A local ocean enthusiast has found a sustainable way to use his passion for sportfishing to help feed the region\u2019s hungry.
\nIn 2010, Todd Bluechel founded and funded Fish. Food. Feel Good. (F3G) to collect unwanted excess fish from sportfishing fleets and donate it to charities that feed people in need. Since its inception, F3G has donated more than 150,000 free meals to seven charities, including Father Joe\u2019s Village of San Diego, the San Diego Food Bank and Meals-on-Wheels.
\nThe idea came to Bluechel in 2008 after watching Robert Redford\u2019s film “Lions for Lambs.”
\n“What I took from the movie was everybody needs to do something for the greater good, outside of their own little world to help others,” Bluechel said.
\nHe didn\u2019t want to simply donate money or old clothes, so he decided to start something that wasn\u2019t being done before.
\nGrowing up around boats and San Diego\u2019s sport fishing industry, Bluechel knew San Diego has one of the best fishing fleets in the country. He also knew there were hungry people who needed help. Since sport-fishing fleets account for less than 1 percent of the total catch, F3G is able to help feed people without contributing to the problem of overfishing.\u00a0
\n“I wanted to create a transparent, very legal way to collect the fish from the sportfishermen and give it to those who need it,” he said.
\nSince each person is allowed to keep 20 fish per day, Bluechel said there is often unwanted catch. Individual fishermen have donated unwanted fish to charities in the past, but F3G eliminates the obstacles by allowing fishermen to donate their fish at the processing facilities on the docks. Once the fish are donated, F3G takes care of the rest.
\n“I\u2019ve often found the simpler you make something, the more likely people are to use it,” Bluechel said. “I\u2019ve not met one fisherman who isn\u2019t ecstatic about the process and the program because it\u2019s a great thing to catch a fish and be able to serve it as a meal, let alone be able to give that meal to someone who needs it.”
\nBluechel eventually hopes to replicate F3G across the nation with the goal of providing 1 million free meals annually.
\nAfter three years of feeding those in need, Bluechel said he credits much of the organization\u2019s success to the fishermen themselves.
\n“Without them, I couldn\u2019t do it. Without their generosity, I couldn\u2019t do it,” Bluechel said.
\nIn August, F3G will host a one-and-a-half-day fishing trip to raise money for the organization locally and to help fund its expansion. To donate and learn more about F3G, visit www.f3g.org.
\n\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A local ocean enthusiast has found a sustainable way to use his passion for sportfishing to help feed the region\u2019s hungry. In 2010, Todd Bluechel founded and funded Fish. Food. Feel Good. (F3G) to collect unwanted excess fish from sportfishing fleets and donate it to charities that feed people in need. Since its inception, F3G […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":274580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Local nonprofit helps feed city\u2019s hungry with quality fish","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}