Category: Stories

A Beacon in West Marin

March 29, 2023

The town of Pt. Reyes Station itself is, by all accounts, pretty tiny. But the reach of local community hub and Food Bank partner West Marin Community Services (WMCS) extends to nearly 16,000 neighbors in rural West Marin — as far as Dillon Beach to the north and Bolinas to the south — with an array of services including a food pantry, financial support, a youth center, and a thrift store.  

We met Alma Sanchez, Food Pantry Manager at WMCS, on a Thursday afternoon as golden hour set in. Neighbors stopped by the food pantry periodically, many exchanging a few friendly words with Alma and other staff. 

Accessibility for Farmworkers in West Marin 

Outside WMCS’ main building, fresh produce provided by the Food Bank — like zucchini, broccoli, corn, oranges, cauliflower, eggplant and apples — was on full display at their farmer’s market-style food pantry. Inside, extra community food donations filled a few fridges. 

Alma helped restock produce outside, explaining to us as she went: “There are remote areas where people live on ranches [in West Marin]. There’s no transportation and difficult access to stores. This is the only place that is open five days a week, four hours every day.” 

WMCS serves all members of the community. But their pantry schedule is especially critical for farmworkers and their families, who often can’t attend during the limited hours at other pantry sites. Additionally, many farmworkers “don’t qualify for CalFresh, or they’re afraid to apply because they don’t know how it works.” That’s where WMCS steps in and helps fill the gaps with fresh, healthy groceries.   

Resourceful and Resilient 

During the intense flooding back in December, “People were saying, ‘We have no power, we lost everything in the fridge,’” Alma shared. “Those days we were very busy, and we operated with no power. We had a generator, and we plugged in everything and continued [all our services]. People were so happy that we had food.” 

If it’s not apparent from that anecdote alone: resourcefulness is the name of the game here in West Marin. Aside from a disaster preparedness program, the funds from their beloved community thrift store doubles as a safety net for community members.  

The Gift of Thrift 

“Thanks to our thrift store, we have a community fund that allows us to support individuals and low-income families in West Marin with unexpected expenses,” shared Yareli Cervantes, Emergency Assistance Program Manager at WMCS. “Just by serving food, we’re able to really get to know people and identify their needs. It opens up the conversation for them to come seek out financial assistance.” 

Though much of their work revolves around rental assistance — “rent out here is so high that it really eats the cost of living,” said Yareli — WMCS also supports neighbors with medical bills, prescriptions costs, and intake support for energy and rental assistance programs through a partnership with Community Action Marin (another Food Bank partner!). 

Fun for the Kids, Too 

A short walk up the road from the main WMCS hub takes us directly to the Tomales Bay Youth Center, an after-school program for mainly 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, with some high schoolers too. Food Bank and community donations cover after-school snacks and meals, and the students enjoy activities ranging from art and tutoring to sports and even a youth DJ program. 

 

“The kids are really hungry, so we need a lot of food every day. We also started a cooking class that happens every Tuesday, so some of our ingredients also come from the food pantry,” shared Interim Youth Program Coordinator Piro Ishizaka. The Youth Center helps local parents who work late, says Piro: “Pt. Reyes is a small town, so there’s nowhere for [the kids] to go otherwise. That’s what we’re doing here every day — providing a safe and fun place for the kids.” 

A Channel for Community Care 

At the Food Bank, our hope is to support and uplift important local organizations like WMCS that provide tailored services for the needs of their communities — all with empathy and dignity. During our visit to Pt. Reyes Station, this deep care for the community shined through every conversation with neighbors, staff, and volunteers. One couple we met, Margarita and Jaime, are residents of Pt. Reyes and regular volunteers. Margarita shared, “I had the time, and so at the start of the pandemic I started volunteering with a cousin of mine. I liked it so much, I brought my husband along too!”  

It’s clear Margarita isn’t the only one who feels this way. WMCS Executive Director Socorro Romo summed it up: “There is the love of the community and there’s the support of the community; we are just the channel to get that through.” 

 

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.

Making Change Every Month

March 1, 2023

It all started back in 2001 with a little neighborhood newsletter. 

When Pam Smith moved back to San Francisco to begin her retirement after a couple years away on business, in her mailbox was a callout for volunteers at the nearby Richmond Neighborhood District Center Food Pantry. It wasn’t long before Pam was going in every week to help out. What she saw during her time volunteering shifted her perspective on hunger. 

“We distributed food we got from the Food Bank, and I saw how many people were coming and getting food – 300 people every Thursday. A lot of them were seniors. It drove it home that there’s a lot of neighbors around who don’t have enough money to buy food,” she told us.

“Life Back on Track”

One neighbor’s story, a young mother of two, always stuck with Pam.  

“One young woman I met was looking for a job and having a hard time. I hadn’t seen her for a couple weeks. Then I ran into her, and she had gotten a job! I was so happy that she was back on good footing. I think that having food available for people gives them a chance to get their life back on track.” 

Pam remained a regular volunteer and donor at the RDNC until the pandemic hit. When COVID restrictions prevented her from continuing at her neighborhood pantry, she switched her efforts to volunteering with the Food Bank five times a week at our warehouse and Pop-up Pantries all over the city, logging more than 1100 hours to date. She’s also a monthly donor to the Food Bank, because she believes that this work “is helping a lot of people.” Pam, thank you for your dedication to ending hunger in San Francisco and Marin! 

 

Building New Futures with SFHDC

February 23, 2023

 On an otherwise quiet afternoon, Oakdale Avenue in Bayview Hunters Point was filled with the sounds of laughter, chatting and mingling. That’s because every Friday at 1 p.m., roughly 40 neighbors gather at a small food pantry in front of their apartment complex to pick up groceries and hang out. Across the street, vibrant murals painted by local youth adorn a large building and its stairway, and a community garden sits at the top of the stairs.  

The common thread here is San Francisco Housing Development Corporation (SFHDC), a nonprofit and longtime Food Bank partner that builds affordable housing, provides financial empowerment services, and invests in the growth and development of Black entrepreneurs in historically Black corridors of San Francisco. They also offer supportive services for residents, including a weekly food pantry with groceries like green onions, rice, grapefruit, sweet potatoes, avocadoes, and squash provided by the Food Bank. 

Securing Stability 

SFHDC’s multi-pronged approach is crucial for securing housing and financial stability for theNicole, longtime pantry volunteer community – but that’s not all. 

“We’re here to not only keep affordable housing in San Francisco, but to ensure and enrich the fact that we want to keep the African American community [of San Francisco] here,” said Taylor Booker, Associate Director of Resident Services and Community Engagement at SFHDC. 

For one resident Nicole, financial literacy workshops put on by SFHDC helped her pay back-due rent on her apartment – and now she gives back, too. On top of caring for her three grandchildren, she volunteers at the pantry every Friday and sits on the Board of the Tenants Association. “Oakdale’s the only pantry that’s open [in this area], so I tell all my residents to come out. And I love volunteering – it gets me out of the house, and we get to know our neighbors in the community,” Nicole shared. 

Healing in Community 

SFHDC also manages the building across from the pantry, which houses other local organizations including Dev/Mission, City of Dreams, and the Phoenix Project. There’s a variety of services available to transitional age (14-24) youth in the neighborhood – and they extend far beyond the employment, education, and housing support one might expect, thanks to leaders like Kiani Shaw.  

Volunteer Kiani puts an onion in a bag for a neighborKiani, a life coach at the Phoenix Project and a regular pantry volunteer, says that “a lot of the work I’ve been doing here with the youth is healing. How do we address the traumas that we’ve been through and how they’ve impacted us? How do we transform that into something more productive or conducive to your success?” 

This emphasis on healing and transformation is interwoven throughout the work of community advocates and activists – including SFHDC Resident Services Assistant Travis Moananu.  

The X-Factor? Trust 

“This is where my heart is,” Travis told us. He’s talking about San Francisco in general – Travis was born and raised in Potrero Hill and has been a resident of Bayview Hunters Point for the last 15 years – but the Oakdale pantry seems to fit the bill, too. Folks lit up when he arrived, with neighbors calling out, “Hey Trav!” or “My friend!”  

As a community activist and Resident Services Assistant with SFHDC, Travis’ ease and familiarity with his neighbors is irreplaceable – because trust and healing go hand in hand. “The asset that a community member can bring to an organization who’s serving the community is huge. You can’t teach what I know. They don’t have a college course for this. I lived it, I know it, I am it.”  

To Travis, having readily available, fresh produce at the food pantry is the perfect way to show his neighbors that “not everybody who comes into the community has ulterior motives. Some of us really want to help. When people can see there are organizations and people who want better for the community, I think the community will become better.” 

Visibility, Transformation, and Future-Building 

“I think people are starting to learn and understand how powerful that can be, for the community to see a community member change their life and be able to do things different,” Travis mused towards the end of our conversation. His own life has had a series of ups and downs, and the fulfillment of becoming an activist and advocate is something he never saw coming. With the trust of the community on one hand, and new connections to resources on the other, he’s the “perfect bridge.”  

“We need to see us helping us. We need to see people who look like me. That way, the kids can say, ‘Okay, well, he did it. He got out.’ I can’t really change what my past was. But I can dictate my future. My future is to help, my future is to give back, and my responsibility is to communities like this.” 

With $23, You Can’t Buy Much

February 16, 2023

“I just went to the store, and a carton of eggs was over $10. And now I’m only going to receive $23? What can I buy with that?” 

This is the predicament that Gladys, and nearly 82,000 other households in San Francisco and Marin are facing this month due to the end of CalFresh (aka SNAP, or food stamps) emergency allotments. During the pandemic, CalFresh recipients received a boost to their monthly budget for groceries. For Gladys, these emergency allotments were a buoy to hang onto as inflation remained high – but they came to an end nationwide in February.  

Staring Down a Benefits Cliff  

“I pick up groceries from the food pantry in the Canal (San Rafael) on Tuesdays, and the rest I buy with my food stamps. Last month, I received $211. Now, the letter from the county says I’ll receive $23, at most $29,” Gladys told us over the phone in Spanish. As a senior, grocery shopping is already made difficult by mobility issues: “My son will often go shopping for the both of us. I’m scared I’m going to fall.” Now, it will be doubly difficult without the emergency allotments she depended on previously.  

Gladys works as a caretaker for a woman in her neighborhood, and lives and splits rent with her adult son. It’s hard to make heads or tails of the prices she sees at the grocery store: “When I do go shopping, I see that everything is so expensive: beef, chicken, eggs. And if I want bread or something else?” Her voice trails off, as if to say, “Forget about it.” 

Food Banks Already at the Brink 

In San Francisco and Marin, the benefits cliff will be especially steep: emergency allotments for our counties averaged out at $150 and $160, respectively. Currently, the California Department of Social Services is directing affected CalFresh recipients to supplement their budget by heading to their local food banks – even though many CalFresh recipients like Gladys were already frequenting food banks to make ends meet. But the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, and others in the area, are stretched to the limit by inflation, shrinking government support, and declining donations. 

“It’s An Injustice” 

Food banks are a band-aid, not a long-term solution for the erosion of safety nets. So while our Policy and Advocacy team continues to push at the federal level for benefits that better reflect the cost of living in our counties, and our CalFresh team continues assisting households in applying and securing the benefits they qualify for, we need our community members and local elected officials to rally in support of our neighbors facing food insecurity.  

It will take all our collective efforts to mitigate the harm stemming from the end of these emergency allotments – because for Gladys and thousands of others, this decision is nothing short of devastating. 

“I just don’t agree with this. No one agrees with this,” Gladys shared. “We won’t have food. It’s an injustice.” 

Buy-Nothing: The Gift of Community

January 24, 2023

With her rescue dog Charlie slung over her hip in a crossbody bag (she says, “my passion is, I love dogs”), Cilla Lee was hard to miss at the Stonestown Pop-up Pantry where we met. And as she talked, three things became apparent: Cilla is a woman with a lot of ideas, a lot of drive, and a lot of herself to give. A San Franciscan since the age of five, she says that the pandemic “made [her] step up” when it came to supporting her community.  

Buy-Nothing: Where It All Began 

She’s underselling it a bit: Cilla took a leave of absence from her airline job so that others with less seniority could keep their jobs during the pandemic, which led her to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank as a participant. Early in the pandemic, with nowhere to go and not much to do, she stumbled upon the concept of “Buy-Nothing Groups,” virtual and occasionally in-person communities where immediate neighbors exchange all types of goods, services and information– all for free, all from their own abundance, all as part of a “gift economy.”  

“There wasn’t a Buy Nothing in my area, so I went ahead and started one up. I went through a crash training course and kind of figured it all out on my own. This whole thing about paying it forward was just because my mom was always helping people growing up. So, I just said, ‘This would be something my mom would do.’” 

From Pastries and Prep Meals… 

Cilla became the admin of the Outer Richmond Buy Nothing group on Facebook. While food isn’t often the primary focus of Buy Nothing groups, in the early pandemic, food donations started rolling in. At first, she started out by making baked goods and offering them up to add a little sweetness to her neighbor’s days.  

“I started making prep meals to show people like, hey, it really wasn’t that hard — come on by and grab a couple of prep meals and pretend it’s a home dining experience. I was also trying to help my neighbors grab groceries. And now I have some volunteers, and they’re just amazing.”  

Since those early days, it’s blossomed into something much bigger.  

…To Fresh Grocery Sharing!

On the day we met at Stonestown, having already picked up groceries for her and her boyfriend, Cilla was collecting items from her fellow participants that they didn’t want. During the pandemic, the Food Bank had to pre-bag groceries for participants due to health mandates. Cilla’s efforts ensured those unwanted items didn’t go to waste by sharing them with her neighbors through their local Buy-Nothing group. While this isn’t a practice that is organized by the Food Bank — nor do we have any ability to regulate what happens with the produce once it leaves our distribution — we’re happy to see those with abundance sharing with their neighbors.  

“I have people RSVP, so they line up, and then they just understand that you only take what you need,” Cilla shared. 

Over the next several months, many of our pantries will transition back to farmer’s market style, where participants will take only what they need. But during the pandemic, it’s both understandable and admirable how grassroots community solutions developed to creatively prevent food waste. 

Personal Touches Make the Difference 

As a small pantry operation, there’s a community building aspect inherent to the way it operates. Cilla says it’s not just her neighbors’ names and faces she’s come to know.  

“I’ll remember which family likes what. There’s a Moroccan family that likes certain items; there’s a Ukrainian family that likes rye bread. And I do a group chat for the regulars that come pick up and for the volunteers. I’ll say, ‘Hey, this is what we got this week. Here’s some [recipe] ideas.’” 

A Slice for You, A Slice for Me 

This colorful distribution van helps Cilla and volunteers make deliveries, too!

And neighborhood businesses even got in on the pantry distribution, with a local pizzeria offering fresh pies up to the Buy Nothing Group.  

“As soon as my driver is on the way to go pick it up, I post it. That way people can claim the pizza as soon as it comes to my door,” Cilla explained. “Depending on how many people claim it, I’ll split it half and half, or I’ll split it three ways, so everybody literally gets a piece of the pie.” 

Food is Community  

At the Food Bank, we’re grateful to learn from and be in partnership with people like Cilla, who use their knowledge of their neighbors to find hyper-localized, community-specific solutions and novel ways to fight hunger. Ultimately, like Cilla says, at the heart of it all is the gift of connecting with our neighbors– and food is a pathway to do just that.  

“It’s uplifting, because you know that you have this community and that you have people that care about you,” Cilla told us, smiling. “Your family may or may not be here; they may be in the same neighborhood, or they may be out of state, but it doesn’t matter. You’ve got a support group.” 

 

Volunteering: A Family Legacy

January 23, 2023

Family legacies come in all shapes and sizes: they might entail a craft or trade that spans generations of family members, a treasured recipe passed down from elders, or even an inherited love of a favorite sports team. For Andrew Lam, his family’s legacy “might just be the Food Bank.” In memory of his late mother Alice Lam, Andrew and his father Harry sponsored this year’s volunteer match that brought in more than 3500 volunteer shift sign ups – and $25,000 to benefit the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. 

“My mother volunteered a lot, for different food banks and for her church. So, my father and I thought that [this match] would be appropriate and would honor her,” Andrew shared. 

Food is at the Heart of it All 

Andrew and Harry began donating to the Food Bank in 2020 through the Alice Lam Memorial Foundation, and they’ve remained dedicated supporters ever since.  

“We support arts, legal aid for undocumented farmworkers, all kinds of things. But food is such a basic need. What my father and I believe is: food is the most important thing. Nothing else can come unless people are fed.” 

Food is interwoven throughout Andrew’s memories of growing up, too. “It’s a huge part of our family. I have a binder with all my mother’s recipes. Food can bring people together and make people feel good, too. You know, it’s not just sustenance. It can really improve somebody’s day.” 

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work 

Already on board with the mission of the Food Bank, Andrew shared that seeing the scope of the warehouse operations in-person opened his eyes to how crucial volunteers are. Speaking on that first warehouse visit, he told us: “It was great to see how people come out to volunteer. Obviously, money goes somewhere, but it doesn’t work without the volunteers doing the actual legwork.” 

After that experience, the Volunteer Match seemed like the perfect fit. Because, as Andrew knows, sometimes time is the most valuable gift one can give: “Everybody has different ways to give back, and it’s not just about money.”  

Volunteers are what power our entire operation at the Food Bank year-round, but during the early months of the new year, participation often wanes. That’s why we’re extra grateful to announce we met the match this year – thank you to every person who signed up for a volunteer shift!  

Ending Hunger, Together 

We’re also grateful for the partnership and generosity of caring neighbors like Andrew and his father, who understand that volunteering is an easy way to have a huge impact on the well-being of our community. Andrew hopes that he and his father can continue to rally their neighbors around volunteering for the good of all.  

“It’s direct aid to our community that we live in, so it means so much more to us. And it’s part of what you owe to your community – because you want to think that if you were on the other side, other people would help you, right?” 

Emergency Allotments Make A Huge Difference

January 19, 2023

Our CalFresh team doing outreach in the community.

Imagine being 80 years old, retired, and getting by in San Francisco with income from your pension and Social Security – just $1,789 needs to cover $1,000 for rent and utilities, plus other expenses. Now imagine you are also the guardian for your three-year-old granddaughter. How do you cover all the costs?

This is the reality for Mrs. S*, who applied for CalFresh with the help of the Food Bank’s CalFresh Outreach Specialist Crystal Deng. Mrs. S initially applied on her own, but the bureaucracy was confusing, and she missed some steps. Her application was denied.

Mrs. S’s experience is not unique. The CalFresh application process is convoluted and cumbersome – if you forget a piece of verifying information or miss a call from a county official, you can lose out on benefits. That’s where the Food Bank’s CalFresh Outreach Team comes in. Crystal helped Mrs. S, like hundreds of other participants, apply and get approved for benefits. Now Mrs. S can afford more fruit, vegetables and other healthy food for her and her granddaughter.

“CalFresh helps participants alleviate their financial stress,” shared Crystal. “Benefits also help them increase access to healthier food and have extra money to stretch their food budget so they can choose the food they like.”

CalFresh Outreach Specialist Crystal Deng shows how she helps participants enroll in the program.

But our CalFresh Outreach Team is worried. During the pandemic, emergency allotments put even more money in the pockets of those receiving benefits. The average recipient in California was receiving $262 per month as of January 2022, an increase from $141 in 2019. Unfortunately, those allotments will expire in February.

“The cost of living in San Francisco is very high and people are struggling with jobs, housing and food,” shared Crystal. “Right now, with the [pandemic-era] emergency allotment the average person is receiving $262. That makes a huge difference.”

Without the allotments some people qualify for as little as $23 a month. Pre-pandemic, Crystal often heard people tell her the application wasn’t worth it for such a low amount – $23 doesn’t buy much in the Bay Area.

The end of emergency allotments will be a major blow for our community – San Francisco households receiving CalFresh will lose an average of $160 per month. There are 72,000 households in San Francisco that receive CalFresh that will need be seeing the rug pulled out from under them next month. Our Policy and Advocacy team is advocating for greater benefit amounts that better reflect the high cost of living in our community, and stronger safety nets and support for food programs like ours. In the meantime, Crystal and others on our CalFresh Outreach Team will continue assisting our neighbors to ensure they receive the benefits they both deserve and need to support their families.

 

* Name changed for privacy, at request of participant.

What Food Means to Us

December 14, 2022

For many of us, the holidays are a time to gather around a shared meal. Pantries are perused, cookbooks are cracked, and calls are made to relatives for their special recipes (if you missed it, check out our community cookbook with contributions from participants, volunteers, and staff!).

Here’s what we know at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank: in sharing a meal, we share our humanity. We’ve spent the last 365 days gathering stories from the community and asking: “what does food mean to you?”

“Food means nourishment”

One sunny February morning, we visited our partner Code Tenderloin in San Francisco and heard from volunteer Arielle: “Food means nourishment – of the mind, body, and soul. Food makes you feel good, gives you confidence and courage that maybe you don’t have when you’re hungry. Maybe best of all is you can share it with people – it’s the way to a person’s heart.”

Code Tenderloin’s Executive Director, Donna Hilliard, added: “I think, with our culture, food is everything. When we come together, we eat. When we celebrate, we eat. When we’re sad, we eat. Sharing meals especially means a lot. For the folks at Code Tenderloin, all of us have been on the ground, so we serve our food with love. That’s why so many people are comfortable coming back – we want them to feel like our extended family.”

Arielle, left, is a student, mom, and volunteer at Code Tenderloin. Donna Hilliard, right, is Code Tenderloin’s Executive Director.

CalFresh recipient Yurin told us how a balanced meal means wellness for her family. “It’s something fundamental to health,” she shared. “Having good food, healthy food, is vital to every person every day.”

And at a bustling Pop-up Pantry in San Francisco’s SoMa, participant Russ chatted with us after picking up his groceries. “It means everything,” he said, showing us a watermelon he was excited to slice into. “I’m learning how to eat healthier now that I can get more and better food from this pantry. I turn 65 next August. You can live a lot better as you learn how to cook, what to eat, and what not to eat.”

Yurin is a Marin resident, mom, and CalFresh recipient.

Making Space for Joy

“Food brings us together, you know? If you got a group of people together, bring a meal. Ain’t nobody fussing when you’re eating.” Cliffton is a longtime San Francisco resident and an artist – recently, he painted ‘Spirit of the Fillmore’ in the Buchanan Street Mall. He’s also a participant at our Rosa Parks Pop-up Pantry. “Food is nourishment for the body,” he continued. “Your body won’t allow you to be negative in that moment, because it’s getting good food.”

That’s the not-so-obvious benefit of a full pantry: with no worries about where the next meal will come from, our neighbors can bring a little more sweetness into their lives.

Laura Cedillo, center, is a Program Manager at our partner Native American Health Center. Cliffton, right, is an artist, longtime San Francisco resident, and participant at our Rosa Parks Pop-up Pantry.

Laura Cedillo, Program Manager at our partner Native American Health Center [https://www.nativehealth.org/], told us that “food means someone’s looking out for you and taking care of you.” Laura and her team pack bags of healthy groceries for anyone who needs them in a second-story space that’s part health clinic in the Mission. She views food as memories as much as sustenance. “When I think of food, I think of family, and I think of being cared for. It’s like, hey, how do I love myself? One of my best friends is Mohican from the New York area, and I remember on her birthday she was like, ‘I’m going to make myself some butternut squash.’ And now every time I make butternut squash, I remember my friend. I remember people I love when I cook.”

 

More than Just Calories

We heard loud and clear from almost everyone we spoke to that food is much more than something that fills your stomach for a few hours.

“I believe food means connection to others,” said Maria, who is both a participant and a volunteer at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in the Mission. “You can meet someone at the food pantry and get to know them and also know they care about you. Because all the people volunteering here, they care about all of us – that’s why they’re here.”

Maria, left, is a resident of San Francisco’s Mission district, and is both a participant and a volunteer. Pastor Richard Roberts, right, heads our partner San Francisco Community Fellowship.

“To share food is to get to know people, right?” said Pastor Richard Roberts at San Francisco Community Fellowship  one of our partners in the Excelsior. “It’s not just feeding them physical food, it’s emotional support and understanding, and getting people to a space where they feel comfortable and accepted. That’s what food means to me.”

As he spoke, Pastor Roberts watched volunteers pack grocery bags while photos of churchgoers at weddings and service days smiled down on them. For him, creating a community and holding a food pantry are all part of the same spirit.

The F-Word (Not That One!)

December 9, 2022

With the holidays in full swing, there’s a lot of talk about family. But what does family truly mean?   

As our community shares below, it’s not just blood ties, and it’s not just the relatives you see twice a year. Family can really be found wherever you look: in senior housing, at a food pantry, down the street, and at your table. And unsurprisingly, food and family intersect more often than not.  

Building Relationships after Retirement

Cui Juzhu (left) and Hui Yu (right)

Cui Juzhu and Hui Yu are both retirees with a penchant for feeding others. Not only are they volunteers at the same SoMa food pantry where they pick up their groceries, but both women find a way to spread the love to neighbors who live in their senior housing building. “Some of my friends have disabilities, so they can’t come and walk to the pantry. So, I pick up my groceries, cook for my family, and then the rest I share with [my friends],” explained Hui Yu, who is a retired restaurant kitchen worker.  

Cooking for others is an act of love; it’s saying, “you are family to me.” And it’s this kind of care that stretches to nourish whole families, friend groups, neighbor networks, and communities.  

Found at a Pantry: “Second Family” 

In sociology, there’s something called a “third place,” that describes a social environment outside of work or home where folks can congregate, see familiar faces, and build community. For María, the Friday food pantry in the Mission where she’s volunteered and picked up groceries for the past 10 years is a little of all the above. 

“I learn their names and their families. Some of them bring me food or coffee when it’s cold, and that’s really heart-touching. It feels good to know that someone else is watching over you. That someone cares about you, even when they are not even close-related, or cousins. They are like my second family.” 

We often say that good food transforms lives. María shows us it’s no exaggeration — good food is a pathway to building community and building family.  

Friends, Neighbors, Pantry Partners

Janet and Bob are obviously close friends and neighbors: they finish each other’s sentences, tease each other, and laugh together. And as many folks can attest, friends are really chosen family. Both born and raised San Franciscans and retirees, Bob began giving Janet rides to their neighborhood food pantry in Stonestown where they pick up groceries together.   

When we spoke in late October, Bob told us how he “fixes things for the neighborhood. I do all types of repairs – I worked in Silicon Valley for 30 years, so I know all about it.” Fences, wall dividers, you name it: folks in the neighborhood know to come to Bob for a repair. Janet, a retired caregiver, chimed in playfully: “I call Bob the house doctor.”  

When folks don’t have to guess where their next meal will come from, it’s a lot easier to devote energy to investing in your community and friendships – something that Bob and Janet clearly do in equal measure.    

Sharing Space, Creating Memories 

For Sharon, who we met at her neighborhood pantry in the Fillmore, it’s no sweat if the people gathering for her holiday feast are biological kin or not – it’s the act of coming together in a shared space to prepare a meal that creates family.   

“Family is everything, you know? I’ve raised a pretty considerable amount of kids. I have four biological kids; I also have two foster children. And depending on my circumstances, I may accumulate a few more children at the table, it doesn’t matter. I’ve been a parent for a long time. After two kids, it doesn’t matter how many people sit at my table. It’s a joy, it’s a blessing. It’s a chance for us to connect when we all sit down together and eat, and I love that. The holidays are always great. It just feels good, when you and your family can sit down to a healthy meal and something that you enjoy. These memories are going to last a lifetime. It makes it all worthwhile.”  

Happy Holidays and New Year

With that, we at the Food Bank would like to wish you happy holidays and a joyful start to 2023! We hope you’re able to take some time this month to sit down to a delicious, home-cooked meal that’s prepared with love. And we hope you can celebrate with family – whoever that may be. 

See you in the New Year!