Did you know that almost 10% of the food we distribute each year reaches neighbors in need through meal programs? The Food Bank provides ingredients to more than 200 local nonprofits who host soup kitchens or provide home-delivered meals.
In 2017, we are on track to provide four million pounds of food to meal programs throughout San Francisco and Marin. By purchasing ingredients in bulk and gathering millions of pounds of donated produce, the Food Bank provides high-quality, nutritious food to our partners.
We work directly with farmers, packers, manufacturers and retailers, sourcing fresh ingredients for partners such as Glide, Meals on Wheels, St. Anthony’s Dining Room, and St. Vincent de Paul, among others.
“The Food Bank is the foundation of the Bay Area’s food assistance network,” said Ashley McCumber, executive director of Meals on Wheels San Francisco. “We rely on the Food Bank as a primary source for fresh, healthy produce for our home-delivered meals and groceries. Thanks to our partnership with the Food Bank, we are able to nourish thousands of low-income seniors across San Francisco. Together, we are a formidable force to end senior hunger and isolation.”
Little did 28-year-old Divon know that a recent visit to a local daycare center would greatly improve her day…as well as her entire summer.
She was heading to Dr. Charles Drew College Prep center in the city’s Bayview neighborhood to see what programs they might have for her precocious two-year-old daughter, Amaya. To her surprise, she discovered the Food Bank’s Summer Kids Food Pantry right on campus.
“I literally had nothing to eat in my house this morning,” said a delighted Divon. “I’m so glad I came by today.”
The single mother beamed as she filled a cardboard box with fresh, healthy food: salmon steaks, summer squash, plums, corn on the cob, and rice. Divon has a full-time job as an in-home care specialist, but paying all her bills – including rent, daycare, and utilities – often leaves her tapped out when it comes to buying food. Now, she plans to return to the pantry weekly.
“We manage to get by somehow…some months are better than others,” she said. “I do remember a stretch not too long ago when I was asking friends for food. I felt badly, but I did what I had to do to protect my daughter.”
The Food Bank started the Summer Kids Food Pantry program in 2016 as a way to help low-income families weather the summer months. It’s a time when many families face even greater challenges to put food on the table because their children lose access to free and reduced-price school meal programs. In addition, many school-based pantries close for the season.
The first year of this program, we piloted two Summer Kids Food Markets – one in the Bayview, the second in Chinatown – and served over 400 families. Last year we added a third location in the city’s Western Addition. This year, we’ve added a fourth location – in Potrero Hill. Together, these four pantries are serving over 500 families from 20 different schools.
Another parent visiting the Chinatown pantry recently was Ken, who has two school-aged kids and is a stay-at-home dad after a serious accident. His family just barely gets by, living solely on his wife’s income.
Ken said, “Without the Food Bank during these summer months, I really don’t know what me and my family would do. It really reduces stress knowing we can count on fresh vegetables, fruits and chicken each week until my kids get back to school.”
Do you want to support innovative projects like our Summer Continuation Pantries? Donate now.
The Food Bank relies on a huge network of nonprofit partners to help us distribute nearly 50 million pounds of food across San Francisco and Marin. We team up with over 400 agencies and scores of pantry volunteers to get healthy food into the hands of our neighbors in need. In many cases, we’ve been working with partners for decades!
Recently, the Food Bank honored hundreds of these pantry coordinators with special luncheons in both San Francisco and Marin.
“It was great to see so many of these pantry coordinators in one place and to acknowledge the tremendous amount of work that happens every week to feed our neighbors in need,” said Food Bank Chief Program Officer Sean Brooks.
The highlight of each event was when the Food Bank gave out special Longevity Awards to partners who have worked alongside us for more than 20 years:
LONGEVITY AWARDS – San Francisco
Bayview Hunters Point Adult Day Health Center
Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center
Donaldina Cameron House
Dunleavy Apartments
Esperanza Apartments
Mendelsohn House
Mercy Terrace Apartments
Mission YMCA
OMI Senior Center
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
Royal Adah Apartments
Southeast Asian Community Center
St. Anthony Foundation
Visitacion Valley Baptist Church
During the Marin luncheon, we gave out Milestone Achievement Awards to coordinators who have been assisting the Food Bank for at least 10 years.
MILESTONE ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS – Marin
Bennett House
Canal Alliance
Margaret Todd Senior Center
Maria Freitas Senior Housing
Marguerita Johnson Senior Center
Martinelli House
Parnow Friendship House
Ritter Center
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church
Salvation Army Marin
San Geronimo Valley Community Center
Venetia Oaks
West Marin Community Services
Mackey Terrace
Novato Human Needs Center
Jennifer Moeller with the award-winning Novato Human Needs Center said she has always been motivated to help people.
“Food is such a basic, fundamental need,” Moeller said. “It’s something that people shouldn’t have to think about, or worry about. One less stressor eliminated from someone else’s life is something we should all strive for.”
For more information on our pantry network, click here. If you would like to get involved at your neighborhood pantry, call the Food Bank at (415) 282-1900 and ask for the Programs Department.
If you would like to view the pictures from San Francisco event, click here.
If you would like to view the pictures from the Marin event, click here.
For many of our most vulnerable neighbors, food is more than the difference between an empty plate and a full stomach. It is also a lifeline – especially for neighbors who participate in the Food Bank’s Home-Delivered Groceries (HDG) Program.
For a closer look at the Home-Delivered Groceries program “in motion”, check out this video, taken at City Hope Community Center in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, featuring a beloved participant by the name of Susan who is visually impaired.
Then there’s the story of Marianne, who says the weekly delivery of fresh groceries she receives from the Food Bank is a life saver. She lives in a single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotel in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood and struggles with many health challenges.
“I’m disabled and have a hard time getting around, so being able to get my hands on this food at home is literally saving my life,” she said.
Before enrolling, Marianne recalls it was a constant battle to get enough food to eat. “I couldn’t feed myself. Thankfully neighbors would offer me meals every once in a while. But there were days when it was really scary just how hungry I was.”
Marianne is one of 1,400 people enrolled in the Food Bank’s Home-Delivered Groceries Program, which assists low-income seniors and adults with disabilities who are unable to get out to pick up groceries, but still able to prepare meals for themselves.
The goals of the program are to provide supplemental nutrition to neighbors in need, to reduce loneliness, and to check on the well-being of our homebound residents.
HDG Program Director Andy Burns recalls one volunteer who had been delivering groceries to a senior for more than a year. “Of course she’s performing a check in with this gentleman each week to make sure he’s doing okay. At one point, the volunteer became ill, and had to be hospitalized. While she was recuperating, the participant became so concerned for her that he started calling her to check on how she was doing!”
On this particular Tuesday afternoon, the knock on Marianne’s door comes right on time, as she is busy preparing a crockpot stew and needs fresh carrots to make the meal sing. In addition to carrots, this particular delivery included apples, chicken, rice and other staples that will nourish Marianne until her next weekly delivery.
Home-Delivered groceries are also a treat for the volunteers on Marianne’s route – a team of developmentally disabled adults who are enrolled at the Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center, where they learn work and life skills. On Tuesday mornings, the volunteers work together to pack these grocery bags, then they head out in the afternoon to make deliveries to 13 neighbors.
Pomeroy’s LouBee Zielinski coordinates the program and says the volunteers are thrilled to help. “They love the looks on peoples’ faces when the groceries arrive. And, to be empowered with something like providing food for others – that’s huge. It’s like Christmas every week, and we get to be Santa Claus!”
In addition to the Pomeroy Center, there are eight other nonprofits which partner with the Food Bank’s HDG Program, but more partners are needed. For more information on our Home-Delivered Groceries program, how it operates, and how you can get involved, click here.
Fifth grader Jayden and his family rely on weekly food assistance from the Food Bank, but his superpower is giving back. This little hero wakes up every Monday morning, two hours before school starts, to volunteer with his grandmother at their neighborhood food pantry.
When we asked him whether it’s hard to get up early, he says, “I do it to make sure that everyone who comes to school won’t be hungry.”
All year, kids like Jayden step up to help their families and community face hunger. But when schools close for the summer and families lose access to school meal programs, childhood hunger reaches its peak. Right now, proposed cuts to food assistance programs threaten to make childhood summer hunger even worse.
Luckily, today you have twice the power to fight childhood hunger. Through June 15th, PG&E is matching all gifts to the Food Bank. Please make a gift today and be a Summer Hunger Hero for kids like Jayden. Please donate here.
In these fast-paced times, the way we connect with friends has been completely redefined. But for 94-year-old Betty Ann, connecting with friends the old-fashioned way is an important lifeline.
When the longtime San Francisco resident entered her 90s, she was living a pretty lonely existence. Her beloved husband, Murle, whom she married back in 1944, passed away from Parkinson’s Disease after they had been married over 60 years.
Her grandson moved in to help Betty Ann around the house, but something was missing: companionship with people closer to her age.
“A social worker suggested that with my fixed income it might be time to contact the local food bank to supplement my groceries,” she said. “He also promised that I would meet nice people and enjoy myself.”
Betty Ann took the advice to heart, and within a few weeks she was enrolled at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s pantry at Ingleside Community Center, just a few blocks from her home. Before long, several friendships blossomed with other seniors whom she met at the pantry.
“I met Zakia, and Lita, and Jean, and Margaret. When they have a birthday, we save our money and go someplace for lunch,” Betty Ann said. “Friends are very important, especially at my age. They keep me happy.”
Betty is thankful for the money she saves by receiving food at the pantry. Her favorite food items are chicken, eggs and vegetables – ones that would cost the most if she purchased them on her own. Like many seniors, she is trying to remain in the city she knows and loves, as the cost of living continues to climb.
“Everything is pretty high right now – the utilities and everything,” she said. “Everything goes up and my income stays the same.”
What isn’t staying the same is the network of friends Betty Ann continues to build at the Ingleside Community Center pantry.
Do you know a senior who could benefit from healthy groceries and companionship? If so, check out our Food Locator feature on our website. There, you’ll find information about our pantry network, our other programs, and instructions on how to sign up for food assistance.
March is National Nutrition Month, a perfect time to celebrate and highlight one of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s organizational values: improving nutrition for our community members. Here are three things our Nutrition Education team suggests you can do to make healthier choices:
Make sure that half of what you eat in a day is fruits and vegetables. Fresh, frozen or canned produce can all help you meet that goal.
Choose lean proteins such as beans, chicken, tofu, turkey, eggs, nuts, seeds, and fish.
Although not every meal needs to include all five food groups, try your best to include as many food groups as possible in each meal. Ideally, meals should include at least three of the five food groups, and snacks should include two of the five
Read nutrition labels (Here are a few tips for gleaning the best information)
Labels only show the nutritional facts for “1” serving, so be sure to check the serving size! For example, you may be surprised to learn that just 1/2 cup counts as a full serving of cereal, so if you eat a full cup, you are getting double the calories and nutrients.
Percent Daily Values (% DVs) show if a food is high or low in certain nutrients. Five percent or less is considered low and 20% or more is considered high. For example, a serving that has 25% DV of sodium would be high in sodium
Ingredients are listed by weight, with the highest weight at the top of the list. If sugar (or another name for sugar) is listed as one of the top three ingredients, know that the item is going to have high sugar content, and so, it may be best to avoid choosing that product.
Choose whole grains
Adding grains to your daily meal routine is important, but make sure you’re consuming whole grains whenever possible. They’re higher in fiber, keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time, and also aid your digestion.
Don’t let the packaging or colors fool you! To make sure that you’re actually choosing whole-grain products, make sure that the top ingredient on your ingredient list says the word “whole.”
Whole grains include brown rice, oats, and whole-wheat pasta. We recommend that half of your daily grains are whole grains.
Fun fact: Whole grains have three layers, each contributing essential nutrients for our body.
Remedios looks back on her life just three short years ago and can’t believe all the things that have transpired since then. It started with her adult daughter dying unexpectedly, leaving behind a grieving husband and 10 children. Her daughter’s husband and children did their best to get up in the morning, get dressed, and keep going, but it was clear they were struggling to stay afloat.
With her grandchildren’s well-being at stake, Remedios did the only thing she could think of: she made room in her modest home for her grandchildren and her son in law. And then she said a prayer.
“I have to be positive. It’s hard, but I know I have to take it one day at a time,” she said. “My daughter left us, and we have to deal with that, but thankfully, God is on our side, and so is the Food Bank.”
Remedios’ weekly routine of visiting the food pantry at the Ingleside Community Center is one way the family is moving forward after their loss. Picking up fresh groceries and visiting with neighbors at the food pantry every Thursday has helped rebuild a sense of safety and security for her grandchildren, who range in age from six to 18.
Since Remedios and her husband are in their 80s and live on a fixed income, getting supplemental food from the pantry is essential for nourishing their fast-growing grandchildren. Like most kids, they have big appetites.
“Oh my goodness, they are unbelievable,” Remedios said. “Twenty-four hours a day they are always in the kitchen! Especially during the rainy season…oh, they want to eat again and again and again!”
Remedios especially appreciates all of the fresh produce she receives at the pantry because getting the kids to eat healthy is very important to her. She said, “I am very thankful for the food, and I make extra sure that It goes a long way.”
Thanks to our generous supporters, the Food Bank will distribute a little more than 49 million pounds of food in the coming year – providing over 30,000 low-income families with nourishment each week. But our mission is so much more than just receiving and distributing food. We have a team of nutrition education experts, hard at work, developing new programs aimed at teaching participants how to make the most of the healthy food they receive on a weekly basis.
“Our goal is to make the healthy choice the easy choice for neighbors who receive food assistance,” says Molly Burke, the Food Bank’s Nutrition Education Program Manager.
She is particularly excited about the launch of two pioneer programs in 2017. One centers on teenagers and the other will focus on pregnant women, new moms, and caregivers.
“Teens Tackle the Kitchen” is a 4-week, interactive series that will engage teens in healthy competition to make the healthiest, tastiest meals and snacks they can using Food Bank ingredients.
“By making our cooking workshops fun and competitive, we’re hoping to engage teens more effectively,” said Burke. “Learning how to cook healthy food from scratch encourages teens avoid unhealthy, processed foods and is a great skill that they can carry with them into adulthood.”
Senior Nutrition Education Coordinator Nalleli Martinez will head up the Food Bank’s other new program, “Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies.” It will encourage new mothers to think about nutrition not only for themselves, but also for their babies during one of the most important and often hectic times of transition in their lives.
“We know that good health depends on good nutrition right from the start,” said Martinez. “Our aim is to foster smart choices and behaviors that can boost mothers’ health, their babies’ health, and the health of their entire family moving forward.”
As we embark on a New Year at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, we want to recognize the accomplishments you helped make possible. With the support of thousands of volunteers, donors, and partners, we nourished nearly a quarter of a million neighbors last year. Thank you! We hope you are as excited and energized as we are for 2017.
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