Author: Bonita Chang

Trust the Process: Building Roots by Being Together

April 17, 2024

Walking into La Raza Community Resource Center on a hot San Francisco summer day last year, we were immediately greeted by an extra layer of warmth: the enthusiastic welcome of La Raza’s staff and pantry volunteers. Nestled in the historic Mission district on Valencia Street, La Raza is a trusted one-stop shop for food and social services that’s been serving the Latinx community since 1979.

a man and a woman holding produce and food pantry itemsa woman handing out celery

Collaborating With Community 

In partnership with the Food Bank, La Raza holds a farmer’s market style food pantry for the community on Wednesdays, serving roughly 330 families each week. Volunteers worked in tandem, passing out leafy greens, onions, plums, and many other dry pantry items. Even in hot weather, it wasn’t enough to slow down their determination to meet the needs of their participants – all with smiles and kindness. Whatever neighbors are seeking assistance with – be it weekly groceries, diapers, or parenting classes – they know they’ll find answers, support, and a friendly face here. a smiling woman with sunglasses holding a box of produce

“It’s always word of mouth – ‘Come here!’ It’s a very trusted space, especially for newcomers,” said Zabrina Olivares, a case manager in La Raza’s Family Advocacy and Social Services department. Though she’s a newer staff member, Zabrina has witnessed first-hand how this legacy of trust with the community has cemented La Raza as such a crucial support system for neighbors in the Mission.

Trust as the Foundation for Success

La Raza’s immigration services are just one example of how trust and relationship-building create better outcomes for community members. In-house immigration attorneys can advocate for and walk with neighbors through their immigration journey, while case managers connect neighbors with other support services. This holistic approach makes a huge difference for neighbors like Carolina, a participant and pantry volunteer at La Raza.

“La Raza is one of the most complete community centers available. It has a lot of services that help with immigration, counseling/therapy for immigrants, and assistance with rent,” Carolina told us. After experiencing threats of violence to her family, Carolina left her home country of El Salvador with her two daughters. The services she found through La Raza provided a supportive launch pad while she found footing in her new home, San Francisco.

two women having a conversation while setting up a food pantrytwo women looking at a box of romaine lettuce

Barriers to Food Security

Creating food security for Latinx community members is a central tenet of La Raza’s work – and this has only become more challenging in recent years. “I’m witnessing that more people need food. During COVID, and especially after COVID, food got more expensive,” Zabrina shared. Our community is being squeezed on all sides by the steep cost of living, including childcare, gas, utilities and more. This fact is underscored by the Food Bank’s participant survey, which found that 83% of those surveyed report being worried about running out of food each week. Additionally, government support is declining,
including the slash in CalFresh benefits last year.

“Food stamp (CalFresh) funds have decreased, but even with that, many of our population aren’t eligible for food stamps,” Zabrina shared. With this in mind, La Raza supports other food access solutions for community members: “We are also an Emergency Food Box site, a partnership with the Food Bank, where participants call ‘211’ and can receive a box of food when the need is extra urgent.”

With a three-day supply of shelf stable food, these boxes are an important resource for people in crisis with no immediate way to access food. On average, the Food Bank supports La Raza with 20-30 Emergency Food Boxes per month. Folks can access this service once every twelve months, and while there aren’t any requirements, it’s helpful to call ahead for availability.

two women holding a large bag of onionsa group of staff standing in a circle having a meeting

Towards Self-Sufficiency for the Latinx Community

While the Food Bank is squarely focused on ending hunger and advocating for solutions to the root causes of hunger, many of our partners – including La Raza – take a more holistic approach to supporting their community members.

Core to La Raza’s mission is empowering their neighbors with self-sufficiency and agency, many of whom migrated to this land for better opportunities. Empowerment can take many forms. One effort La Raza is focused on is advocating for policies like Immigrant Parent Voting. This law allows noncitizen parents to vote on measures that affect their children’s welfare in public school.

As case manager, Zabrina encourages parents to get involved: “This is affecting your child’s education and who you want and don’t want in there. I remind them that this is part of self-sufficiency, advocacy, and empowerment. This is your power, your vote, and to feel part of your community. And that’s something that we encourage a lot here – to be part of your community – be together.”  It’s this sense of agency and power that informs all of La Raza’s work, and one that permeates the attitudes of volunteers, participants and staff alike.

Carmen Callejas, La Raza’s current Pantry Coordinator and a former La Raza participant, shared that her trust in this community is informed by her own story of reaching self-sufficiency: “I learned to respect the community, and especially that the work is for them. There is nothing better than that. Working with love and passion to help people out is invaluable.”

logo of La Raza CRC

The Heart of The Fillmore: A Q&A with Adrian Williams

March 23, 2023

On a beautiful, late Wednesday morning, we visited the Rosa Parks Senior Center, where members of The Village Project packed grocery bags to be delivered to community members, primarily senior citizens, in San Francisco’s Fillmore District, also known as the Western Addition.

As we approached several picnic tables assembled into a large rectangle, we could see Adrian Williams, Executive Director of The Village Project among her staff moving quickly through an efficient assembly line to fill green plastic bags with groceries — a typical morning for her. She has been a longtime partner of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, where community-based organizations that offer food as part of their other programming can come to purchase food for a few cents a pound.

The Village Project, founded seventeen years ago, began as a program to ensure the youth in the Fillmore/Western Addition communities had access to food and enrichment during the summer, when school was closed, and school lunches weren’t available. It has since evolved to include a yearly summer program for youth, afterschool program, free celebratory events for Kwanzaa and Mardi Gras, grocery deliveries to local families and seniors, and more. It’s all due to Ms. Adrian’s profound passion for youth and her unique ability to identify community needs, and tailor her approach to finding and utilizing resources.

“Ms. Adrian is an amazing part of the community who’s adapted her programming to meet the needs of the neighborhood,” said Food Bank Program Coordinator, Benson Truong. “We are lucky to have partners like her and hope to continue supporting The Village Project in their mission to feed the community.”

We caught up with Ms. Adrian during her break from the assembly line to learn more.

woman grabbing oranges to pack into plastic bags

Food Bank: Why did you start The Village Project?

Ms. Adrian: We started in 2006, during the height of violence in this community. I was working in Oakland [and] my grandbaby was growing up [in the Fillmore]. I was taking my grandbaby to school one day on California Avenue and passed by this park — [I saw people] throwing frisbees, dogs were bouncing, people on blankets. Then it dawned on me, I don’t see that in the Western Addition.

[Because I show up for my community by feeding people], I was concerned about how the babies* eat during the summer. I talked with my boss and told him that I wanted to volunteer [in the Fillmore] and feed the babies, and that’s how The Village Project started. [I would] come over on Wednesdays, knock on doors and tell the parents “Let me have your babies,” and I’d take them out on field trips to the Aviation Museum and feed them. For some, it was their first time riding BART.

Eventually, the babies would ask for more. I decided to take a leave of absence from my sales job at a Xerox dealership. My boss held my workstation for two years, [but I got hooked], so I just told him, “I can’t come back.” And that was basically the start of The Village Project.

FB: The Village Project’s website boast the Mardi Gras, San Francisco Style and Seven Days of Kwanzaa events; are there other events that The Village Project hosts?

Ms. Adrian Williams: We also have a community barbeque to kick off the summer. I’m also into the blues, honey, so we have a free blues concert.

My stuff is free, and somebody told me a long time ago that people don’t value free; I tend to disagree. I think it’s just the way you present it. People are prideful, and in the era I grew up in, pride was very important in my community.

FB: What does food mean to you?

Ms. Adrian: I grew up in the South, and we had wonderful lunches. We had real cooks in the kitchen, and we were poor. Growing up, lunch was a major meal for me. So that was one of my concerns, that the babies had food to eat. I guess that’s Southern because I’m always trying to feed people.

FB: Do you want the legacy of your work to continue into future generations?

Ms. Adrian: My daughter is the president of the Fillmore Corridor, so she’s already walking in my footsteps working with the community.

FB: It’s Women’s History Month. What does Women’s History mean for you and your community?

Ms. Adrian: I have a strong history of women [in my family]. I used to always wonder why the male person was often missing in the community, and I figured out why when we got older. In the old days, if you’re subsidizing, you could lose your income if you moved a man into your house. Well, my mother, Ruth Williams, who was the strongest person, worked three jobs, and was always astute. She literally changed legislation in the state of Louisiana to allow women on welfare to have a man stay in their household. It just amazes me how much humanity is deprived because of certain economic situations. That’s how my mother was, strong, extremely strong woman.

* When Ms. Adrian says “babies,” she is talking about young children/youth in general, not just infants and toddlers.