Transforming Services & Advocating for Change

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

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

The 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