From Crisis To Transformation

At my core, I believe that good food is not just sustenance. It is the keystone of thriving, resilient people and communities. It is transformative.

One year ago, the Food Bank began a transformation of our own: we embarked on the first leg of a three-year strategic roadmap to root into our values, deepen our partnerships and advocacy, and chart a course from the pandemic era towards a future of abundance. Reflecting on our journey’s first year, I’m incredibly heartened by our collective efforts – partners, participants, volunteers, donors and advocates – to make good, nutritious food accessible to all.

Together, we broadened food access by helping trusted partners open new neighborhood pantries and reopen those shuttered by the pandemic. We listened to partners and participants to better understand the challenges facing our community and how we can reduce barriers to food access. In coalition, we fiercely advocated to bolster critical safety net programs. Through it all, we shared fresh, seasonal produce and pantry staples with more than 55,000 households each week.

During the pandemic, we saw historic levels of need. Generous donors stepped up to provide critical resources, and I thank them for their dedicated support. But the need for good food remains historic and urgent. Pandemic-era supports that helped neighbors make ends meet and lowered poverty began rolling back in fiscal year 2023. The rising cost of necessities, from groceries to rent to utilities to childcare, added pressure on low-income families and forced difficult tradeoffs. And as inflation persisted and the safety net shrank, food insecurity increased by 30% in 2022 compared to the previous year*.  Throughout fiscal year 2023, our neighbors continued to turn to the Food Bank to put food on the table.

Meeting this growing need as funding from all levels of government declined and food costs rose was a significant challenge last year, and something we continue to grapple with. As we look to the future, it will take deep, sustained community investment to bridge this gap.

As we enter year two of our strategic roadmap, we continue to pivot our services from the crisis response of the pandemic to a more sustainable approach. We are building off our community’s insights to find innovative, effective ways of working with partners. We are centering choice and dignity while piloting new service models that help neighbors get the food and the holistic support they need. And we are tenacious in our advocacy for upstream policy solutions that address both the consequences and root causes of hunger.

Our work is cut out for us. But I am energized by our shared vision for the future: a community where everyone has access to nutritious food of their choosing, is uplifted by a network of support, and all can thrive.

Together, I believe we can make this vision a reality and end hunger in San Francisco and Marin.

Tanis Crosby

Executive Director

The Food Bank ended fiscal year 2023 in a sound financial position despite rising costs and declining private and public support. Thanks to the generosity of donors who supported us during and since the pandemic, we were able to serve record levels of people despite historic inflation coupled with a rollback of government support.

Knowing crisis response funding was likely temporary while the need likely wasn’t, the Food Bank Board of Directors proactively established a multi-year $30 million emergency response reserve fund to extend the impact of that money. The goal was to ensure the Food Bank could serve as many people as possible for as long as possible and weather the anticipated decreases in pandemic-era support and an unpredictable economy.

In our financial summary on the accompanying page, you will see that the Food Bank experienced a deficit of $2.7 million in fiscal year 2023. This was a result of the decline in financial support coupled with increased operating expenses due mainly to rising food prices, a sharp decline in USDA support that forced us to buy more food, continually high levels of service, and an increase in personnel costs in response to changing market conditions. The financial deficit was strategically covered by the emergency reserve fund as part of a three-year planned spending of these resources.

In line with our three-year organizational strategic plan, our three-year financial plan includes spending down the emergency reserve while moving towards achieving a sustainable balanced operating budget by fiscal year 2026. To achieve this goal, we plan to decrease expenses, invest in the acceleration of new solutions to end hunger, and recommit to more cost-effective solutions we know work. We are also focused on ensuring we have the resources necessary through private donations to offset decreased revenue from government sources.

As the largest nonprofit food provider in San Francisco and Marin, hundreds of other organizations and tens of thousands of individuals are counting on us – and we are committed to doing everything we can to be there for them. We are grateful to each and every donor who continues to make this possible.

The next page presents a snapshot of our financials. Complete audited financial statements are online at sfmfoodbank.org/financials or by request.

Michael Braude


Chief Financial Officer