Author: Cady Osgood-Otis

Message from Paul Ash | GOP Tax Bill Poses Double Threat for Nonprofits

December 22, 2017

This week, the Republican-led Congress passed a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code, which President Trump signed into law today.

This tax bill has the potential to hamper the Food Bank in two significant ways: It could disincentivize charitable giving, and it will trigger cuts to safety-net programs in order to reduce a ballooning federal deficit.

By doubling the standard deduction, the tax bill would effectively eliminate the incentive for charitable contributions for millions of taxpayers. Any changes to this provision – which has encouraged charitable giving for more than a century – could result in a devastating decline in donations. Because 60% of the Food Bank’s operating revenue comes from individual donors, we are very concerned that this could be a direct blow to our operating budget – hurting our ability to serve our community.

In addition, the tax cuts will cause a major increase in the federal deficit, which politicians say they will balance by cutting safety-net programs such as SNAP (Food Stamps) and Medicaid. According to House Speaker Paul Ryan,’We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit.’

It has been our experience that such pressure results in disproportionate cuts to programs intended to help those most in need. Achieving deficit reductions ‘on the backs’ of our most vulnerable neighbors will cause even more people to turn to the Food Bank and other nonprofits for help. It could generate demand for food assistance that we cannot meet.

These are uncertain times for not just the Food Bank, but nonprofits around the nation. We are issuing an urgent message to our donors and partners that in 2018 we will need their support more than ever.

Show your support: click here to donate to San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.

Nana’s Pecan Pie Recipe

December 18, 2017

This pecan pie recipe is a holiday favorite from Food Bank Executive Director Paul Ash’s “Family Cookbook.”  It’s from the kitchen of Paul’s  mom, Lenora Ford Ash, affectionately known as”Nodie” and “Nana” to her family.

Nana (right) with her husband and grandchildren. 

Paul and his family always look forward to sharing this scrumptious pie.  We encourage your family to try it this holiday season, too!

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsp. butter (unsalted)
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 3/4 c. granulated white sugar
  • 3 large eggs, beaten well
  • 2 cups dark corn syrup
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup pecans, chopped
  • 1 nine-inch pie shell, unbaked

 

Steps:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Combine ingredients and mix well.
  • Pour into unbaked pie shell.
  • Bake for 45 minutes, until firm.

Enjoy!

Want more recipes? Sign up for our eNewsletter and get our favorite recipes delivered right to your inbox with monthly Food Bank news.

Nutrition Education: 5 Tips to stay food safe this holiday season

November 23, 2017

As the Food Bank continues to serve thousands of our neighbors in need this holiday season, we know that food is a big part of any celebration.  It not only nourishes the body, but the soul, and helps to bring people together. With that in mind, it is important to make sure the meals you prepare are safe. For that, we checked in with our Nutrition Education team for their top 5 tips to stay food safe year round.

1. Wash hands and surfaces often with soap and warm water. Harmful bacteria can easily spread when hands and surfaces are not clean.

2. Use separate cutting boards for meat.  If possible, keep cutting boards that you use for fruits and vegetables separate from those you use for meats, poultry and seafood. If raw meat juices come in contact with raw produce, harmful bacteria can make us sick. Keeping our cutting boards separate reduces that risk.

3. Thaw meat on the bottom shelf. When defrosting animal proteins for the holidays, place raw meat, poultry, and seafood in containers or sealed plastic bags and place them on the bottom shelf of your fridge to prevent juices from dripping onto other foods.

4. Avoid the Temperature Danger Zone (TDZ) by keeping cold foods at 41°F or below and hot foods 135°F or above.

5. Cool first, then refrigerate. Store leftovers in fridge-safe containers once food has cooled. Avoid placing hot leftovers directly in the fridge before cooling. Hot food can raise the temperature of your fridge and other foods insider, inviting the growth of pathogens on surrounding foods.

Bonus Tip
6. Enjoy the holidays in the company of your loved ones including family, friends, neighbors, and even pets!

Want food-safety tips and other Nutrition Education tips? Sign up for our monthly eNewsletter.

Heather’s Story | Young Marin Family Grateful for Pantry Food

November 23, 2017

Life’s not perfect – far from it at times – but you won’t hear Heather complaining about it too much.  She would much rather spend her time counting her blessings, like the time she spends with her two young children and her fiancé.  Unfortunately, sitting down for a family meal is a rarity these days.

MAKING ENDS MEET

Heather wakes up before dawn each morning so that she can get to work stocking candy machines at 5 am. She puts in a two-hour shift, then returns home, so her fiancé can leave for work. He has two jobs as a cook and works six days a week, twelve hours per day.

They hardly see each other, but it’s the only way the family can scrape by to pay the high cost of rent. Heather depends on the Food Bank pantry at the Ritter Center in San Rafael to feed her kids. “This is a life changer, and I think this place is keeping us alive,” she says. “It’s where I get the fresh fruits, vegetables, and eggs that make up most of our food.”

This time of year is particularly hard time for Heather’s family because both the kids’ birthdays are in November and then Christmas is right around the corner. She wants to provide them the happiness of opening gifts. “I get them toys at the Goodwill,” she says. “They are young so they don’t know that they are used.”

FOOD BANK SUPPORT

No matter the situation, the Food Bank is ready to respond to the needs of participants, especially during the holidays.  We served fresh, nutritious food to over 32,000 households during the months of November and December of last year, and are on pace to top 33,000 households this year.

In spite of her hardships, Heather keeps a positive attitude. “When I look at our finances, it’s so stressful,” she says. “But life is too short, and I’m thankful for what we have. We aren’t going hungry, and I’m grateful to the Food Bank and its supporters for that.”

You can ensure that families like Heather’s have enough to eat everyday by making a cash donation to the Food Bank today.

Full Circle | A Volunteer’s Perspective

November 16, 2017

Barbara Elliott caught herself chuckling the other day as she was breaking down food boxes inside St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in San Francisco’s Lower Pac Heights. It was Monday morning and the longtime parishioner was volunteering her time at the food pantry in the downstairs community room.

“I’m laughing because I recently volunteered at the Food Bank’s warehouse, and my job there was to build the food boxes… here I am now, tearing them down!”

Indeed, the 74-year-old Elliott has come full circle. She has seen how the food comes into our warehouse and how it’s packed for distribution and is also intimately aware of where it goes — into the hands of our neighbors in need.

VOLUNTEERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

Elliott is one of 40,000 volunteers who gave their time this year to help the Food Bank in its mission to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin. That’s the equivalent of 70 full-time employees, and every last person is needed to distribute just over 48 million pounds this year. “There is absolutely no way we could move that much food and feed that many people if we didn’t have volunteers like Barbara, willing to give up a few hours of their time each week, to pack food, hand out food, and do it with a smile,” says Food Bank Community Engagement Manager, Cody Jang.

A volunteer shift is fast-paced and exciting. Many of our warehouse shifts involve boxing up thousands of pounds of fruits or vegetables. Sometimes our volunteers are tasked with repacking rice into family-friendly one-pound bags. Every volunteer leaves knowing just how much they packed or sorted, and how much of an impact it will make on the community later that week.

You can count Elliott as a believer.  “I really enjoyed my volunteer shift in the warehouse, but find it much more rewarding to see the smile on people’s faces when they receive these fresh groceries every week at my pantry.”

If you’d like to donate your time at one of the two Food Bank warehouses, please sign up here.

Making Thanksgiving Possible | A Community Comes Together

November 14, 2017

Thanksgiving is our busiest time of year at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, and it takes thousands of people to pull it off. From dedicated volunteers to pantry coordinators to community partners to generous supporters like you, distributing a special holiday menu for thousands of Food Bank participants is truly a team effort.

Your support helps the Food Bank serve our 253 neighborhood pantries and 200 community partners across San Francisco and Marin. Every organization that distributes food supplied by the Food Bank makes a big difference in the lives they touch— whether they provide fresh groceries so our neighbors in need can prepare traditional Thanksgiving meals to enjoy with their loved ones at home, or prepare holiday feasts for participants with turkey and all the fixings.

PROVIDING FOOD FOR THE HOMELESS

In November, the Food Bank will provide local agencies like GLIDE Memorial Church and St. Anthony’s with ingredients to cook large-scale meals for our neighbors. On Thanksgiving, your support helps us send GLIDE 40,000 pounds of food to feed 5,000 of our hungry neighbors—many of whom are homeless or without family.

More than 500 volunteers lend a hand, and every guest receives a helping of turkey and ham, as well as the traditional sides of stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

“I’m in the shelter and without this, I probably wouldn’t be eating this Thanksgiving,” said a guest named Kittridge. “Here, you are treated like a guest, and it’s beautiful.”

HELPING FAMILIES CELEBRATE

The Food Bank will provide over 30,000 families who visit neighborhood food pantries with Thanksgiving ingredients to make a special meal at home with their loved ones. One of our participants, Martin who attends the Treasure Island Homeless Development Initiative, a supportive-housing center.

Martin’s family is part of a close-knit community of about 75 people who attend the weekly pantry. There, people not only pick up food, but they catch up and check in with their neighbors. “The Food Bank gives us a whole chicken,” says Martin. “It’s perfect because our oven is too small for a big turkey. We are so thankful.”

“Many of our pantry participants have disabilities,” says Sherryl Hairston, pantry coordinator. “They tell us all the time how much they appreciate this food. And, we can see it in their faces.”

YOUR SUPPORT MAKES IT POSSIBLE

With increased need over the holidays, there’s never a better time to support the Food Bank. Click here to make a contribution that will help provide warm meals to our neighbors in need.

 

Leaving a legacy to help end hunger

November 3, 2017

Mr. David and Rev. Dr. Susanna Singer have been Bay Area residents for 35 years, and advocates for its most vulnerable residents for that same tenure. Both born and raised in London, Susanna recalls that, while her family led a modest life, they always did for others and taught their children to have the same mindset.

“It was an absolute given that we should give back; it’s kind of bred in the bone,” says Susanna. “Our mother in some way was always organized in service outside of the home. It was just normal for her to do that; she has always done it. It was a value we grew up with.”

When they moved to the Bay Area in 1981, David started work in Silicon Valley and Susanna began her training to become a priest.

It was in 2001, around the time of the first recession, that Susanna and David began giving to the Food Bank. Susanna recalls she and David reading an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on food insecurity, and they knew they wanted to join the Food Bank in becoming part of the solution. Their first visit to the pantry and warehouse, where they witnessed the amount of fresh produce distributed, the quality of the food and the efficiency of the regional operation, served to impress them.

“That visit sealed the deal in terms of making it a regular part of our local giving,” says Susanna.

In addition to their annual giving, Susanna and David recently incorporated charitable provisions to the Food Bank into their estate planning, helping to ensure the future of the organization. They have become members of the Food For Life Circle.

“We thought, the Food Bank isn’t going anywhere; there is longevity to it. And the need is going to be there too,” explains Susanna. “It’s really very simple. The Food Bank is the best way we’ve seen to get food to people who need it.”

Letter from Paul Ash | Moving Forward, One Year Later

November 3, 2017

It’s like clockwork. Every year, as the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank transitions out of summer and in to fall, the energy changes around here. It’s the countdown to the holidays – our busiest time of year. Some people call it our “Super Bowl.” And like the big game, this time of year brings out a lot of nerves, but also our best effort.

We’ve been nourishing our community for 30 years now, but it’s still wonderful to see the determination ramp up even higher as our drivers, pantry staff, and coordinators work extra hard to fight hunger when the stakes are highest.

But this time around it feels like there’s even more at stake. This holiday season, many of the already-struggling families we serve are now facing the possibility of changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as SNAP or food stamps). The types of cuts to SNAP, being discussed by Congressional leaders, would cause mayhem for food banks around the nation. Many of our participants are also very anxious about the potential loss of healthcare coverage as threats to the Affordable Care Act continue.

Our region has also suffered through some of the most devastating wildfires in California’s recorded history. Thousands of people in the North Bay have been displaced from their homes, and desperately need help to get past the roughest stretch of their lives.

There is a rawness about the issues we face in 2017. But instead of cowering as this gigantic wall of adversity appears in our midst, we are doing the opposite. We are meeting the challenges with more verve than ever. We are mobilizing – and doing so with many partners – because we know we can’t do this alone.

The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank continues to be a voice for food safety-net programs in the halls of government in Washington, Sacramento, San Francisco and Marin Counties.

We are also extremely busy on the food side of things, assisting with disaster relief efforts – not just with the North Bay fires, but also in Houston, Texas following the massive destruction left behind by Hurricane Harvey. Numerous San Francisco-Marin Food Bank employees have traveled to both locations and put in long hours because it was the right thing to do.

At the same time, we’re keeping our eye on the prize by providing nutritious food every week to 30,000 families in San Francisco and Marin. We also continue to innovate, introducing new and exciting programs that are already expanding our reach, and helping to feed even more neighbors in need.

We’re feeding people like Heather Crossen, who starts her delivery-driver job before the sun comes up, then comes home to care of her two young children while her fiancé goes off to work two different jobs.

We’re helping seniors like Betty Ann Kirkpatrick, a 94-year-old widow who has outlived her husband by 35 years. She could never have done so without food assistance from her neighborhood pantry. As someone with a fixed income, she continues to live an active life with dignity because of the healthy food she receives every week.

This all brings us back to the here and now. The holiday season is upon us and with so much at stake already, the comfort and welcoming of a shared holiday meal for neighbors in need is going to mean even more. To me, it’s simply unthinkable for one of our neighbors to go hungry – especially at Thanksgiving – especially in a community as thriving as the Bay Area.

If you want to share the holiday spirit, here are three ways to help nonprofits that serve our community: consider a cash donation, sign up for a volunteer shift, or lend your voice as an advocate or ambassador for the cause. These are the best ways we know to make all our communities healthier and stronger.

Sincerely,
Paul Ash
Executive Director
San Francisco-Marin Food Bank

 

Advocacy Wins 2017

November 1, 2017

We are happy to report that there is a lot to celebrate from California’s 2017 legislative session.

At the beginning of the year, our Policy and Advocacy Team set our sights on 11 bills and two budget issues that we knew could improve food access for our neighbors in need. Throughout the year we wrote letters to our legislators in Sacramento, encouraged our supporters to call their own legislators, and even testified at hearings in the Capitol. And thanks to our partners at the California Association of Food Banks, the California Food Policy Advocates, and the Western Center on Law and Poverty – among many organizations – we saw several important victories in our collective goal to end hunger.  Here are some of the highlights:

Starting in 2018, we will see more State funding for food banks across the state:

  • $8 million for the CalFood fund in 2017-18, which will provide State funding to food banks to purchase more California-grown fruits and vegetables – a big victory considering the fund only received $2 million last year! Thank you to those of you who signed a postcard for Governor Brown or Assemblymember Ting.
  • Senate Bill 61, authored by Senator Hertzberg, will renew and extend the Emergency Food for Families Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund. This will allow taxpayers to keep contributing to the work of food banks in California through their tax returns.

Children and students in California will have better access to nutrition at school:

  • Senate Bill 138, authored by Senator McGuire, will require school districts to identify children who are already on Medi-Cal so that they can automatically be enrolled in free school meals. The legislation also allows very high poverty schools across California to serve universal free breakfast and lunch to all of their students – not just those who are enrolled in free or reduced-price meals.
  • Senate Bill 250, authored by Senator Hertzberg, will ensure that schools cannot deny lunch nor punish students if their parent or guardian hasn’t paid their lunch bill on time.

CalFresh (food stamps) will become easier to access for families and individuals in need:

  • Several bills will make it easier for eligible people to receive and stay on CalFresh benefits starting next year. This includes SB 278, authored by Senator Wiener, which will protect CalFresh participants from penalties related to over-issuances when they were caused by county errors, and SB 282 also authored by Senator Wiener, which will provide clarity to counties on whether they can encourage people to use their CalFresh benefits at restaurants.
  • Assembly Bill 607, authored by Assemblymember Gloria, will streamline and modernize the Disaster-CalFresh program, making it easier and quicker for people to receive benefits in the case of a natural disaster.

You, as supporters of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, empower our Policy & Advocacy team to advance legislation and policies that improve food assistance at the local, state and national level.   For that we say thank you.

Click here to sign up for our Advocacy Alerts, so that you can help us to advocate at critical moments in the legislative session in 2018!

We Rise to the Occasion

October 27, 2017

We at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank pride ourselves on helping out whenever and wherever we’re needed. When called, we rise to the occasion. Little did we know that our mettle would be tested by multiple disasters in a matter of weeks.

In the aftermath of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Harvey, we dispatched food, resources and employees to assist the Houston Food Bank.  Then, about a month later, when massive wildfires broke out in Sonoma and Napa counties, we heeded the call for help by sending fork lift drivers and warehouse experts to help our sister food bank manage a huge influx of food donations.

And because disasters don’t end when flood waters recede or flames are extinguished, a second wave of employees – most volunteering their own time — have travelled to help food banks and residents in affected areas to recover.

Rebuilding in Houston

Program Manager Berkeley Adams recently wrapped up a two-week stint in Houston where she put her knowledge of establishing new pantry partnerships to work.

“Houston’s network of food distribution locations suffered a huge blow from ‘Harvey’, mostly from all the flooding that occurred,” she said.  “I was brought in to assist their team in building new community partnerships and build new pantries in  neighborhoods that were most affected by the storm. We spent a lot of time identifying the best locations for outreach. After that, it was going door to door and cold calling to local churches and nonprofit agencies people.”

Giving a lift to Santa Rosa

Rich Faafiu is one of several operations staff members who have been pulling long shifts driving a forklift at the Redwood Empire Food Bank since the Tubbs Fire leveled entire neighborhoods in Santa Rosa. He says the biggest challenge is maneuvering all the donated food that continues to pour in from a generous public.

“I met a woman who relocated to Ohio after living in Santa Rosa for many years,” Rich said.  “As soon as she heard about the fires, she jumped into her pickup truck, drove all the way here, picked up a pallet full of water from Costco and delivered it to the Redwood Empire Food Bank warehouse.  That kind of response gives me chills, and energizes me to keep working long hours to help the great people of Sonoma and Napa counties.”

Helping victims access CalFresh (food stamps)

In late October, several members of our CalFresh (food stamps) outreach team were dispatched to Sonoma and Napa counties to help fire victims enroll in the Disaster-CalFresh program, which provides a month’s worth of food stamps benefits to low-income families and individuals who were impacted by the fire. The team visited evacuation shelters, churches, and community centers, hoping to enroll as many victims as possible.

Program Manager Francesca Costa said, “These wildfires have been devastating for so many in the North Bay, but the community’s grace and resilience is beyond inspiring.  We hope that connecting folks affected by the disaster to D-CalFresh will mean they have one less thing to worry about during this difficult time.”

“Helping is what we do best, and we will continue to answer the call when disasters strike,” said Food Bank Executive Director Paul Ash. “We’re all one big family and survive by having each other’s backs. After all, one day we will be on the receiving end of one of these life-changing catastrophes, and will be the ones needing help.”

For more on our disaster response, check out our earlier blog posts on the North Bay Fires and Hurricane Harvey.