 There is no better way to celebrate community than by gathering together to share traditions and delicious food. We invite you to join us for the South Bay Tamalada, an afternoon dedicated to connection, culture, and nourishment.
Whether tamale-making is a cherished generational tradition in your family or you’ve never spread masa on a husk in your life, all are welcome! This event is a true community effort—we each bring a portion of the ingredients or tools needed to make the tamales, ensuring there is plenty for everyone to enjoy. Event Details
How to Participate Because this is a communal "potluck-style" preparation, we ask that you sign up in advance to contribute an item. Your contribution helps make this afternoon of nourishment possible for the whole group! Click Here to Sign Up Questions? If you have any questions about what to bring or what to expect, please feel free to reach out to Carlynn Ashley at [email protected]. We can't wait to see you in the Social Hall for a day of food and friendship!
0 Comments
 Settling In
It has been two months since the Food Pantry pulled up stakes and moved to our new home at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chula Vista. Transitions of this size are never easy, but thanks to an incredible team and a lot of heavy lifting, the move has been a resounding success. Making the Move Moving an entire pantry is a logistical puzzle. Between hauling heavy equipment, prepping the new rooms at St. John’s, and navigating the paperwork for our city permit, there was plenty to do. We are incredibly proud to report that we only missed one Saturday of distribution during the entire process. By the Numbers To ensure a smooth start, we intentionally restricted the number of tickets during our first Saturday at the new location. We wanted to make sure our systems worked before opening the floodgates. Since then, we’ve hit our stride:
Smoother Than Ever A huge shout-out goes to Deirdre, Corina, Sara, and Rhea. This team has been instrumental in organizing the new layout. Thanks to their hard work, we’ve integrated additional carts, tables, tarps, and flags that have made the distribution flow even more efficiently than before. Whether you are a neighbor who just joined us or a volunteer who helped us move the very first crate, thank you for being part of this new chapter at St. John’s. We are honored to serve the Chula Vista community from our new home. To volunteer with the Food Pantry email us at [email protected].  Our annual holiday potluck is always a highlight of the year, but this one felt extra special. On December 20th, we gathered for our first-ever potluck at our new home in St. John’s Episcopal in Chula Vista. We had a fantastic turnout, with volunteers from the entire week joining us after the Saturday distribution to share a meal and celebrate our hard work. From homemade favorites to festive desserts, the spirit of the season was in full swing. Check out the photo gallery to see the faces (and flavors!) that made the day so memorable.
Dear Members and Friends of First UU San Diego:
Like all of you, we are deeply troubled by the delay in SNAP benefits caused by the ongoing government shut down. We want to let you know how we at First UU are responding, remind you of available resources, and let you know how you can help. Food Pantry Distribution resumes 11/8 The Food Pantry moved from our location on Broadway to St. John’s Episcopal, 760 First Ave in Chula Vista just last week. On Saturday 11/1, we oriented volunteers to our new location, and this week, distribution resumes on Saturday 11/8. We are grateful for the many people who have donated time and treasure to make this move happen. Click here for the pantry webpage. Help is available Church members who rely on SNAP benefits are welcome to join the many families and individuals who receive nourishing food from our food pantry. You can find out more about how food is distributed on Saturdays by contacting [email protected]. We also distribute diapers on Sundays at 12:45 pm. Rev. Kristen and Rev. Justine can also provide assistance to members who are facing challenges due to loss of benefits through the Minister’s Discretionary Fund. Please contact Rev. Kristen ([email protected], 619-398-4435) or Rev. Justine ([email protected], 619-398-4434) if you need assistance. How you can help The food pantry welcomes volunteers during the week and on Saturday mornings. To learn more, contact [email protected]. We also welcome financial donations to the food pantry and to the Minister’s Discretionary fund. For $1 a week, the pantry is able to provide 15-20 pounds of fresh food to a family. Providing support to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund helps us to continue to provide support to the members of our church who are struggling. We expect to experience greater need, especially as the government shutdown drags on and as we approach the holiday season. You can donate here: https://www.firstuusandiego.org/donations.html Unitarian Universalists Respond We are part of a movement of Unitarian Universalists around the country who are responding to the needs of our communities. You can learn more about the work of UU congregations around the country in this recent UU World article, which also highlights the South Bay Food Pantry: https://www.uuworld.org/articles/snap-benefits-help-unitarian-universalists We are grateful for the ongoing generosity of spirit and resources from this community of faith. Let us continue to support one another in these troubling times. In faith and service, Rev. Justine and Rev. Kristen Ministers, First UU San Diego  The government shutdown could lead to local families losing all or part of their CalFresh (SNAP/Food Stamps) benefits.
This would leave our neighbors without the means to buy essential groceries. Our food pantry is a lifeline to fill this gap and ensure no one in our community goes hungry. We Need Food Pantry Volunteers! Your time and effort are needed to support this demand. Contact: Corina Macias ([email protected]) Your generosity could make the difference between a family eating or going hungry.  Boleto En la despensa de alimentos First UU, estamos comprometidos a que nuestra distribución semanal en Chula Vista sea lo más organizada y libre de estrés posible. Para asegurar que todos tengan una experiencia fluida, utilizamos un sistema de boletos por mensaje de texto para nuestras distribuciones de los sábados.
A continuación, encontrará su guía paso a paso sobre cómo recibir alimentos este fin de semana. 1. Cómo obtener un boletoPara recibir alimentos, debe tener un boleto. No utilizamos una fila física de espera; en su lugar, puede asegurar su lugar desde la comodidad de su hogar.
Importante: Por favor, evite enviar "Hola" o "Buenos días" como su primer mensaje. Enviar un saludo en lugar de un número puede retrasar el sistema y causar que se quede sin boleto antes de que se agoten. ¿Qué pasa si es mi primera vez? ¡No necesita estar registrado previamente para obtener un boleto! Si es su primera vez, simplemente envíe su número (1, 2 o 3) para obtener su lugar. Llenará un formulario de registro sencillo cuando llegue.
¡Esperamos verle este sábado!  Pantry Ticket At the First UU Food Pantry, we are committed to making our weekly food distribution in Chula Vista as organized and stress-free as possible. To ensure everyone has a smooth experience, we use a text-based ticketing system for our Saturday distributions.
Below is your step-by-step guide on how to receive food this weekend. 1. How to Get a Ticket To receive food, you must have a ticket. We do not use a physical walk-up line; instead, you can secure your spot from the comfort of your home. Text us at (619) 678-0134.
What to text: To make the process as fast as possible, your very first message should simply be the number of families you are picking up for: 1, 2, or 3. > Important: Please avoid sending "Hello" or "Good morning" as your first text. Sending a greeting instead of a number can delay the system and may cause you to miss out on a ticket before they run out. Wait, what if I'm new? You do not need to be pre-registered to get a ticket! If it is your first time, simply text your number (1, 2, or 3) to get your spot. You will fill out a simple registration form when you arrive.
2. What is on Your Ticket? Your digital ticket contains two important pieces of information:
3. Pickup Details & Location
4. Helpful Reminders
We appreciate your cooperation in following this process. By using the ticketing system and arriving at your scheduled time, you help us serve the Chula Vista community more efficiently. We look forward to seeing you this Saturday!  Tenemos una gran noticia: vamos a lanzar un nuevo sistema de boletos para que la recogida de alimentos sea más sencilla y eficiente. A partir de ahora, usaremos un sistema de texto para dar un lugar en la fila. Cómo obtener un boletoEl sábado, puedes conseguir un boleto enviándonos un mensaje de texto al (619) 678-0134 después de las 7:00 a. m. Cuando nos escribas, te preguntaremos para cuántas familias estás recogiendo alimentos. Una vez que respondas, recibirás tus boletos. Puedes obtener boletos para un máximo de tres familias. ¿Qué pasa cuando se terminan los boletos electrónicos?Después de las 8:30 a. m., distribuiremos boletos de papel en persona en la iglesia First UU, ubicada en 970 Broadway, Chula Vista, CA 91911. Qué esperar en tu boletoTanto si recibes un boleto electrónico como uno de papel, cada uno tendrá un número que representa tu lugar en la fila y la hora aproximada para recoger los alimentos. Por favor, no llegues a la iglesia antes de la hora indicada en tu boleto. El estacionamiento es limitado y queremos asegurarnos de que todos tengan una experiencia fácil y sin contratiempos. Agradecemos tu cooperación y esperamos verte el sábado.  We're excited to announce a new ticketing system to make food pickup smoother and more efficient for everyone. We're introducing a text-based system for getting a spot in line. How to Get a Ticket On Saturday, you can get a ticket by texting us at (619) 678-0134 after 7:00 am. When you text, we'll ask you how many families you are picking up food for. Once you respond, you'll receive your tickets, which you can get for up to three families. What Happens After the eTickets Are Gone? After 8:30, we'll hand out paper tickets in person at the First UU Church located at 970 Broadway, Chula Vista, CA 91911. What to Expect on Your Ticket Whether you get an eTicket or a paper ticket, each one will have a number that represents your place in line and an approximate time for pickup. Please do not arrive at the church before the time listed on your ticket. We have limited parking, and we want to ensure everyone has a smooth and easy experience. We appreciate your cooperation and look forward to seeing you Saturday!  In this challenging time of mass deportations, the South Bay Food Pantry is helping our neighbors and friends understand their rights as treasured members of our community. Social Justice Coordinator Valeria Aguilar and UU congregant Nina Douglass handed out flyers and wallet cards from immigration rights advocates including the ACLU and helped answer questions and concerns. While the mission of the Food Pantry is to feed hungry San Diegans, our real objective is to care for our whole community.
 This holiday season, help support families by donating new, unwrapped blankets and toys. We recommend blankets sized 60" x 80" or larger. You can also explore our Amazon wish list. Items purchased through there will be sent to our Hillcrest campus: loom.ly/WTK7OP4. Drop off at the Hillcrest or South Bay campuses. Donation deadline is December 18, with distribution on December 21. There are volunteer opportunities! Contact [email protected] if you are interested in helping with the drive or the food pantry.
Click on the flyer to see a bigger version! The South Bay Quincenera is such a joyful occasion!
This campus, in this location, was born of our congregation’s desire to put ourselves in a community where we could do local social justice work. Our South Bay Food Pantry was born from the marriage of that yearning and a community need I experienced when I taught at an elementary school we can walk to from here.  Produce is bagged up and ready to go. Volunteer Pablo always stacks the bags in a perfect pyramid. By Sara Ferguson, Pantry Volunteer
At a recent early shift on a Saturday at the South Bay Food Pantry, I lift my gaze from bagging fruits and vegetables and experience a moment of bliss. I am surrounded by a vital, purposeful community of clients and volunteers pulling together to make food available to hundreds of their neighbors. The volunteers and clients around me are doing so much more than bagging produce. They tell jokes and stories. One client jogs around the parking lot to increase his fitness. Another plays jazz on his car radio. Several clients stop by to chat and admire the vegetables. I love that I am in a place where people can express all their humanity and good cheer. When the Diaper Pantry was evolving from Maureen McNair’s idea to a room stacked with cartons of diapers at the South Bay campus, Mindy Hochgesang & her son Sebastian signed on as two of its first volunteers. Since then, Mindy and Sebastian have volunteered monthly at the pantry and Mindy has taken on leadership for the Pantry’s varied needs. She’s deployed a range of skills from the interpersonal to the statistical: recruiting and training volunteers, ordering diapers, wipes and other supplies—many large cartons— from the food bank each week, scheduling volunteers from Hillcrest and South Bay to work the Sunday distribution shifts as well as scheduling volunteers to receive deliveries of diapers and supplies mid-week, documenting and communicating diaper pantry policies and procedures, maintaining the statistics that the food banks, which supply the diapers, require, and the overall coordination and communication. Mindy has been a key person in organizing the teams and assuring that all this happens every week.
By Rhea Kuhlman, Pantry Volunteer
Families come in all shapes and sizes at the Food Pantry. Some are grandparents raising their grandkids. Some are single parent households or even two parent households. Some are elderly on fixed incomes, or extended families with 3 or more generations living together. But there’s one thing these families all have in common. With San Diego rents among the highest in the nation (average $2917/month per rentcafe.com), electricity rates the highest in the U.S. (thanks, SDG&E), and ever-rising food prices, people earning minimum wage or less cannot afford to provide nutritious food for their families. By Rhea Kuhlman, Pantry Volunteer
While most of our Food Pantry’s clients have homes, and many have one or more jobs, a few of our clients are unsheltered. Each week, we prepare about five bags of shelf stable food for homeless people, who have special needs due to their lack of a place or equipment to cook meals or store items that need refrigeration. Portraits in Generosity highlights our Sustaining Donors, the people who’ve committed to a monthly donation to the South Bay Food Pantry
Louise Titlow and Karen Kircher have given monthly to the South Bay Food Pantry since early 2020. The pantry was all of three months old when Maureen McNair, its founder, told them about it. They knew it was a natural fit with their values. Portraits in Generosity highlights our Sustaining Donors, the people who’ve committed to a monthly donation to the South Bay Food Pantry
“It’s the most consequential work that we do as a church community. I want to be a part of it.” Steve Howard learned about the Food Pantry early in 2020 from Maureen McNair, who founded the Pantry. He knew right away that he wanted to support it. He volunteered as a mid-week bagger, showing up on a weekday morning to move produce like onions and squashes from the five-hundred-pound pallets that the food banks deliver to the individual bags that volunteers distribute on Saturday. He’s always worked for humanitarian causes, and he feels that “what we do matters more than what we believe.” The hands-on work of bagging, which he continues to do every week has grown his understanding of social justice work: “I discovered that I get a lot of satisfaction in directly helping people. I get to see the results.” Portraits in Generosity highlights our Sustaining Donors, the people who’ve committed to a monthly donation to the South Bay Food Pantry
Judy Ramirez, who calls the South Bay campus her church home, is one of the Pantry’s earliest and most loyal donors. She knew Maureen McNair, who founded the Pantry, and learned about the Pantry soon after its launch in December 2019— “people in the South Bay campus were talking about it.” She wrote a check to support its work, and she’s written a check every month since. My partner, Karen Kircher and I, Louise Titlow, have been Diaper Pantry volunteers for a year and a half primarily receiving the deliveries every other week on Tuesdays. Sometimes our shift overlaps with some of the Food Pantry volunteers who bag non perishable food items. At first, the food bagging team and our diaper delivery team tried to work in our overlapping cramped spaces, but there wasn’t enough room and we kept bumping into each other. We made a compromise, and we now help them bag food and they help us carry and stack boxes. I said how grateful I was for Sue Marberry’s help one day and she said “This is what we do, we help each other.” We are creating community while working shoulder to shoulder together, and getting to know each other better. Karen and I have been monthly Sustaining Donors of the Pantry for a few years, and we feel our donation is very well spent, supporting one of our community’s most important programs.
The South Bay Food Pantry is a major success story for First UU San Diego. From its start in December 2020, the Pantry has grown from feeding 20 to 30 people each week to 400 households, about 1200 people, every Saturday. That’s an 800 percent increase! This expansion has been driven by the need in the community, and supported by volunteers from both church campuses, and many of our clients. We have much to be proud of, and much to be grateful for.
 By Mindy Hochgesang
“Many hands make work light”….I learned this mantra as part of my son’s Cub Scouts experience but seems to hold very true for how the team that supports the Diaper Pantry (the little sister of the Food Pantry). Each Sunday, our doors at the Diaper Pantry at the Chula Vista campus open for one hour and typically serve families with a combined total of 60-80 children. In addition to diapers, families are provided with diaper wipes, menstrual hygiene products for females in the household, and often, bread that has been donated by a local bakery.
 By Sebastian Hochgesang
My name is Sebastian. I'm 10 years old and I go to Martin Elementary. We have been volunteering at the Diaper Pantry since it first opened. My mom and I started volunteering about a year and a half ago. In the beginning, it was a little bit hard, but eventually I got used to it. It was nice to know other people in the community. And my mom and I usually go for a treat after we volunteer. Here are some of the things I help my mom with when we volunteer:  By Isabella Furth, Pantry Volunteer
For years, I have been fiercely protective of my Saturdays. As it is for many people, my work week is a bustle of work and meetings and activity. Sundays are full of church, music rehearsals, and gearing up for the week to come. But Saturdays! For me, they are the day of rest. There’s time for a swim, a walk, an outing, visiting a friend, doing the crossword, cooking. A time to relax, to think, to slow down and make room for things outside the world of work and consumption and productivity. Saturdays are my Sabbath. For years, when faced with any standing commitment, no matter how important or worthwhile—if it meant giving up Saturdays I would give it a pass. And then in March 2020, Maureen McNair called me, looking for volunteers to work at the food pantry. On Saturdays. |
What's New?The First UU Church of San Diego blog is your resource for upcoming events and past event recaps. Leave us a comment to let us know what you think!
Categories
All
Archives
February 2026
|
RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
(619) 298-9978 | Staff Directory
We have two campuses:
Hillcrest campus: 4190 Front Street, San Diego, CA. 92103 | South Bay campus: Saint John’s Episcopal Church, 760 1st Ave, Chula Vista, CA 91910
For GPS to our Hillcrest Campus, please use 298 W Arbor Dr., San Diego, CA 92103
For detailed directions, parking and more see our Contact page.
We have two campuses:
Hillcrest campus: 4190 Front Street, San Diego, CA. 92103 | South Bay campus: Saint John’s Episcopal Church, 760 1st Ave, Chula Vista, CA 91910
For GPS to our Hillcrest Campus, please use 298 W Arbor Dr., San Diego, CA 92103
For detailed directions, parking and more see our Contact page.
|
|
|
©First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego. All rights reserved. Admin.