2023-2024 Annual Report
Every day, our community in San Francisco and Marin takes action that adds up to major change: Action that starts with the belief that food is a human right. Action that makes our mission to end hunger achievable.
The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank isn’t just a nonprofit organization. We are a community working together to make sure our neighbors have the food they need today — and to advocate for solutions that will end hunger tomorrow. We do this because we envision a future free of the root causes of hunger, where everyone has access to nutritious food of their choosing and is uplifted by a network of support.
In pursuit of our vision, we continued to transform our services in fiscal year 2024 while serving 53,000 households weekly with fresh, nutritious food. In partnership with community partners and participants, we co-created innovative solutions that not only provide access to food but also uphold the dignity of those we serve.
Innovation is in the Food Bank’s DNA. When COVID-19 hit, we launched outdoor Pop-Up pantries to meet surging need. They were supposed to operate for just a few weeks but have lasted five years. Now — even though food insecurity is increasing — government funding for pandemic-era hunger programs has ended and we must close all Pop-Up Pantries by June 2025.
We still expect to feed 20% more people than we did pre-pandemic because of strong partnerships with over 300 community organizations and a focus on innovative solutions. We operate what is likely the largest home-delivered groceries program of its kind in the United States. We began the development of Community Market pilots that will provide participants with dignified food choice along with access to other support services. And we continued to supply 215 weekly neighborhood food pantries with fresh, seasonal groceries.
We have expanded not only how we deliver food, but how we source it. We source beautiful, nutritious produce – nearly 70% of the food we provide is fresh fruits and vegetables.
Hunger is directly linked to public policy choices. That’s why we have advocated for policy solutions that ensure access to CalFresh (formerly food stamps), free school meals, and other safety net programs. We are supporting community leadership for advocacy through our new Food Policy and Advocacy Coalition (Food PAC), led by people who have experienced food insecurity themselves.
We are here to end hunger. I am inspired by the collective actions of everyday people who accomplish the extraordinary. Together, individual voices make change. Every gift makes an impact. An hour of volunteer service ensures our neighbors have access to food. Whatever your actions, however you contributed to this year’s success, we are deeply grateful.
Tanis Crosby
Executive Director
Fiscal Year 2023
Fiscal Year 2024
Fiscal Year 2025 and beyond...
Building on learnings gained by working with community, we continued to transform our services. This past year, we launched innovative pilots, co-created community-centered services, and advocated for change. Moving forward into 2025 and beyond, we will continue to work collectively with our community to address the hunger we see today and its root causes.
Our Partner Network
300+
partnerships built
& strengthened
215
Neighborhood Food Pantries
click to view:
Pantries
Non-Pantry Partners
Pop-ups
Home-Delivered Groceries, San Francisco
Home-Delivered Groceries, Marin
Key
Low: 11,600
High: 86,600
Key
Low: 2,500
High: 8,100
The reality in San Francisco and Marin is that many families are strained by a high cost of living combined with low wages, challenging their ability to afford basic needs. It’s understandable why so many turn to us to put food on their tables.
Nearly
meals worth of food shared with the community
Waitlisted individuals are
more likely to experience food insecurity than those enrolled in our programs
“During the summer, food is a bit more expensive. I come here every Monday, and this food lasts a week – we try not to eat too much to adjust. Sometimes I’ll go to my work, and they’ll give me a little food to eat, like a breakfast of pastry and a coffee.”
Anielka ParticipantOur survey of 3,000+ participants shows that food insecurity stems from policy. We need to invest in social safety net programs and find lasting solutions to the root causes of hunger.
88%
for Latinx participants
87%
for single parents
80%
for Black participants
of participants experience food insecurity
But
worry less about running out of food thanks to the Food Bank.
A leader in sourcing large volumes of nutritious food, our Food Bank distributed 67 million pounds of high-quality food last year. Over the past year, we conducted intentional outreach by surveying participants and community partners to ensure access to healthy food that our neighbors and their families enjoy.
pounds of food distributed
Nearly
of the food we distribute is fresh produce
"The food is just wonderful. I mean, you share it, you eat it, you make salads, they give us eggs, a lot of nutritious foods and I love turnips. All you have to do is get some olive oil and stir fry and just eat it.”
Anna Participantparticipant responses informed our community-centered food sourcing
of participant like the food they receive
of participants say the food is culturally appropriate
This past year, we collaborated with community partners to reimagine and co-create services. This included opening or expanding traditional pantries and laying the foundations to launch new Community Markets. Co-led by partners, open multiple days weekly, and with flexible hours, Community Markets will feel like grocery stores and let participants browse and choose products, and provide access to services that directly address the reasons they need charitable food assistance.
We worked with 9 partners as part of the Community Market co-creation cohort.
traditional pantries opened or expanded
"Forty percent of participants can’t access traditional pantries because they’re only open one day a week – with Community Markets, there are multiple days to both access food and critical services that can drastically improve their wellbeing and social mobility."
Irene Garcia Associate Director of Community Building, San Francisco-Marin Food Bank“Our Umoja Health Access Point opens this spring. We’re looking forward to having a Community Market in it to provide low-barrier access to whole, healthy food and the dignity of a supermarket experience, which can reduce shame from seeking food support. Once folks are here, they can access other clinical support services. It’s an opportunity to promote whole-person health.”
Shanell Williams Executive Director, Rafiki Coalition on Health and WellnessThe Food Bank consistently looks for ways to connect those we serve with nutritious and culturally appropriate food. Last year we expanded our knowledge base of cultural food preferences by partnering with Bayview-based nonprofit En2Action and nine other diverse community partners across San Francisco and Marin.
Partners
– Bayview-Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement
– Bayview Senior Services (D10 Community Market)
– Canal Alliance
– Compass Family Services
– Mercy Housing
– Richmond Neighborhood Center
– The Women’s Building
– West Marin Community Services
Demographics Surveyed
– Asian
– Black/African American
– Latinx
– Middle Eastern/North African
– Native American
– Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
– White/European
We co-led a culturally relevant food study together with
community partners
“Knowing what participants prefer is important. Including culturally appropriate options in participant survey data we obtain over the year is valuable. With the LFPA program we can source a volume of fresh produce from underrepresented farms – that benefits us, farms like Brisa Ranch and our participants.”
Barbara Abbot Chief Supply Chain Officer, San Francisco-Marin Food BankWe also piloted ways to both source culturally relevant products and develop partnerships with underrepresented farmers. Leveraging resources from the USDA’s Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) program and through a partnership with the California Association of Food Banks, we worked with a collective of five local small and mid-size farms to purchase food guided by participant feedback.
"We pilot a food hub in Pescadero serving producers along the Central Coast. Being part of a collective of small and mid-scale farms that’s able to deliver production levels that go beyond retail sales really matters for everybody. This is a big deal, especially for diverse farms like ours, to be part of this [the LFPA] and work directly with the Food Bank."
Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou Brisa RanchOur Policy & Advocacy efforts this year included advocating for more funding for school meals, food benefits for all income-eligible people regardless of immigration status, and helping to pass AB518 – a bill requiring the state to identify people eligible but unenrolled in CalFresh and find ways to enroll them.
secured in CalFresh benefits
people helped in applying for CalFresh
“We know CalFresh is a proven tool for addressing hunger. AB518 is important because it requires the state to create methodologies to determine who is receiving CalFresh and who is not, and recommend culturally appropriate steps to get those unenrolled into the program. With greater access to CalFresh, people can get the nutritious groceries their families need, and they become less reliant on food banks to put food on their tables.”
Marchon Tatmon Associate Director, Policy & Advocacy, San Francisco-Marin Food Bank$480M+
for Summer EBT benefits for California kids
$8M
in state funding for food banks to buy from California farmers
$112
million increase for universal school meals for all children
AB2033
requiring colleges have a store accepting student EBT cards
$33M
increase for universal school meals for children
AB518
to identify those CalFresh eligible, but currently unenrolled, and find ways to enroll them
To address hunger’s root causes, we need to end structural inequalities. By lifting up the voices of those most impacted by hunger, we can improve public policy. In 2024 we formed the Food Policy and Advocacy Coalition (Food PAC) with 13 people who have experienced food insecurity. They help establish priorities for future policy and share their stories with policymakers to enact change. We further raised participants’ voices on Hunger Action Day and during Community Convenings.
partners joined 3 convenings on Farm Bill priorities, addressing hunger, and innovating solutions to food insecurity.
“Meaningful policy centers community. By amplifying those with lived experiences with hunger, we can ensure legislators create inclusive measures that positively impact many.”
Noriko Lim-Tepper Chief Strategic Partnerships, Advocacy & Voice Officer, San Francisco-Marin Food Banksupporters joined our advocacy efforts through online and in-person outreach
San Francisco and Marin community members with lived experience with hunger joined our Food PAC
"Having been someone that had to utilize food banks and food pantries in different ways throughout my life, I want to be able to help and give back in whatever way I can. Right now, because I don’t have the ability to give back financially, this is a way that I feel like I really can make a difference.”
Greer Food PAC MemberTogether with a network of more than 300 community partners, we mobilize thousands of caring, dedicated people every day to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin and serve 53,000 households weekly.
Asian
65.4%
Hispanic/Latino
19.4%
White
8.4%
Black/African American
5%
Middle Eastern/North African
0.5%
Mixed Race
0.6%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
0.4%
Native American
0.3%
53,000 households served weekly
67% female
67% senior
32% have children
42% disability in household
4% veteran in household
3% unhoused
38% of those with children are single parents
74% first language other than English
Inclusive of households for whom we have demographic data.
We envision a community where everyone is uplifted by a network of support and has access to nutritious food of their choosing. This requires dedicated volunteers who work in our warehouses or deliver groceries directly to seniors, families with young children, people who have a disability or are pregnant, and others, so those who cannot get out can still receive fresh groceries. Appreciation for our committed volunteers goes beyond gratitude.
53,000
households served weekly
96%
of participants worry less thanks to the Food Bank
67M
pounds of food distributed
~56M
meals worth of food was shared with the community
~70%
of the food participants received was fresh produce
8,000+
seniors and homebound people received Home-Delivered Groceries
Last year’s volunteers worked
shifts totaling 138,000 hours
partners supported with volunteer recruiting
“I heard that the Food Bank needed volunteers, and I come from a religious culture that believes we need to help repair the world. I started one day a week, then two or three, now I'm at four, mostly in the pantries. I think my total hours are just under 1,300, and I’ll be 80 years old in July.”
Mitchell VolunteerThe Food Bank’s fiscal year July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024, ended strong. We have been focused and intentional in the steps we have taken along our path from crisis response to financial sustainability. And our donors continued to demonstrate support for our efforts to transform our services to address both the hunger we see today and prevent the hunger that may arise.
We entered the year with the understanding that $6 million in annual government funding for pandemic-era emergency food programs would be cut. In October 2023, due to the funding cuts, we announced that we would end pandemic-response programs by June 2025 and reduce staffing levels to return to a sustainable balanced budget over the forthcoming fiscal years. We did so, recognizing hunger in our community remained high and with a commitment from our Board of Directors to continue to spend down emergency financial reserves built up during the pandemic to off-set the added expenses.
With strategic fiscal stewardship and agency-wide efforts to identify cost savings, we focused on improving our systems, utilizing resources differently, and, importantly, fostering innovation. As a result of implementing thoughtful financial sustainability measures, resourceful food sourcing and robust donor support, an expected FY24 operating deficit was avoided.
A variety of factors contributed to our year-end positive change in net assets. Our investments performed extremely well. Increased availability of government commodities resulted in the Food Bank receiving more food than it distributed. We also received several large, one-time gifts to support our expansion efforts and general operations — some of these contributions were unexpected, generous legacy gifts.
Additionally, our transformative service approach is resonating with donors. In FY24 we received a considerable amount of temporarily restricted funding to be spent in subsequent years for our community-centered efforts, primarily to enable innovation initiatives such as community markets and support reopening and expanding traditional partner pantries through capacity-building grants.
We have taken many strategic steps this past year in pursuit of our mission to end hunger. While we still have a distance to travel, the cumulative result of all our strategic financial steps, and the impact of the generosity of our donor community indicate that our plan is working. In alignment with our strategic roadmap, we are advancing the transformation of our services and remain on track for a balanced budget in the next two years. We will get there and are extremely grateful for your support along the way.
Respectfully,
Michael Braude
Chief Financial Officer, San Francisco-Marin Food Bank
Financial Statement
Funding Breakdown
Revenue
Donated Food and In-Kind Contributions
$ 92,937,250
Government Food Commodities
$ 29,120,252
Government Grants
$ 19,001,586
Private Contributions Including Events
$ 40,483,902
Other Revenue
$ 3,910,328
Total Revenue*
$ 185,453,318
Expenses
Program Services
$ 162,584,826
Management and General
$ 4,786,629
Fundraising
$ 7,987,853
Total Expenses
$ 175,359,308
Total Net Assets
$ 122,775,933
Board of Directors
Fiscal Year 2023-2024
Çigdem Gencer, Chair
Executive Coach & Founder
Fazilet Consulting
Jonathan Walker, PhD, Vice Chair
Managing Director
Secretariat Economists LLC
Jessica Berg
Co-Founder & Principal
BergDavis Public Affairs
Noelle Bonner
CEO
Bonner Communications
Dianna Cavagnaro
Founder & CEO of Hesper
Founder & CEO of Z’est La Vie
Jennifer Chang
Vice President of Product Development and Program
Management and Operations
Zendesk
Pepe Gonzalez
Director of Community Partnerships
San Rafael City Schools
Randy Gottfried
Finance Consultant
Ansaf Kareem
Partner
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Horace L. Montgomery Jr.
Assistant Executive Director of Programs, Associated Students
San Francisco State University
Rabbi Stephen S. Pearce, PhD
Congregation Emanu-El
San Francisco
Barbara Rosston
Nonprofit &
Educational Consultant
Beth Roy Jenkyn
Pro-Bono Nonprofit Consultant
Community Volunteer
Joseph Sáenz, PhD
Managing Director
Fremont Group
Jeff Schoppert
Retired Lawyer
Hilary Seligman, MD
Professor of Medicine
UCSF
Tara Seracka
Senior Vice President, Legal & Deputy General Counsel
Cisco Systems
Linda Shiue, MD
Director of Culinary Medicine
Kaiser Permanente San
Francisco
Uma Sinha, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
BridgeBio Pharma
Judy Young
Executive Director
Southeast Asian Development Center
Nadia Rahman
Principal
Rahman Consulting
ONTO
2025
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