Saddleback Church Becomes Largest Free Food Provider in OC

Providing practical relief to the community in the form of free food is nothing new to Saddleback – our church has been providing free food to the community for over 10 years. Therefore, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses in March and created financial strain for so many, we knew we needed to quickly scale up our operations to provide food to struggling families. As the need grew exponentially, we began to serve ten times the previous volume of food and moved to a contactless drive thru format to keep volunteers and vulnerable community members safe.

Six months later, Saddleback Church is now the number one provider of free food in Orange County. Since March, we’ve had 450 grocery distribution events which have served 100,000 families. Saddleback’s members have risen to the task, serving 19,994 volunteer shifts to provide food for 412,623 people. The goal of these distributions has been to lift the burden of families in the community by helping meet not just their practical needs, but their spiritual and emotional needs as well. Each family that receives food is given the opportunity to talk to someone about what they’re going through and receive prayer if they would like it. It is within this setting that over 13,000 people have chosen to begin a relationship with Jesus while receiving food at a grocery distribution since March!

All of the 14 Southern California Saddleback campuses have been involved hosting pop up grocery distributions in the community and at our permanent food pantry locations. 4.8 million pounds. of food have been distributed since the start of the COVID pandemic, the equivalent of 3.9 million meals.

In this season, Saddleback has been working in close partnership with the Orange County Department of Education, ACCESS Schools (the most vulnerable students and families), and three additional OC school districts, in addition to LA and SD school districts. We’ve also been partnering with the County through partnerships with four OC Supervisors.

We’re also very excited as a church to care for families on a exponentially greater scale. Between now and December, Saddleback is looking to equip and encourage 100,000 parents, single parents, and children in our community through things like tutoring, partnerships with schools, and help for single parents.

To sign up to serve in our So Cal food relief efforts, visit Saddleback.com/grocerydistribution. To find a grocery distribution near you, visit saddleback.com/getfood.