Category: Programs

Senior Stories: Patricia at Grace Fellowship

December 28, 2021

Every Saturday morning, Patricia, a longtime resident of San Francisco, walks or busses with her Chihuahua to our partner food pantry at Grace Fellowship Community Church. Sometimes her friend Lester joins her, but when we met her last month, it was just her and her dog. Patricia has been receiving food from Grace Fellowship for four years now, and the pandemic made her situation even more challenging. “When I couldn’t come to the pantry, oh, I was heartbroken. We [in my senior facility] were sharing food… I had to look in my cabinets for things that my dog could eat. It saves me so much, because I can’t afford things. I have to pay for my electricity and things, so there’s a lot of expenses.”  

The Senior Hunger Landscape

Everyone needs a little bit of help as they grow older, whether by asking a grandkid or a neighbor to mow your lawn or having a friend pick up a few things at the store. But as everyone in the Bay Area knows, living in San Francisco or Marin is expensive. High housing prices and a steep cost of living mean that balancing expenses can be challenging, especially if you’re living on a fixed income such as Social Security disbursements like many seniors are. The unfortunate reality is that seniors are at a high risk of being forced to choose between food, bills, and medical expenses. Feeding America recently reported that California’s senior hunger rate has hovered at 8.4% in 2018 and 2019. We don’t have official data yet on the impact of COVID-19 on senior hunger rates, but we can infer that affording food hasn’t gotten any easier. We recently surveyed over 7,000 participants and learned that more than 80% of them have yet to recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19, and recent problems in the global supply chain have made the prices of food rise in recent months.  

By getting food assistance, Patricia can pay her expenses while also improving her health. She, like many seniors, has a few health issues that poor nutrition makes more complicated. It’s the variety and type of food Patricia gets from Grace Fellowship that Patricia really appreciates. “I make smoothies out of the fruit and juice the celery. It’s really good for your intestines. And out of the rice, I make congee [rice pudding], or I make rice and I put whatever vegetables and chicken I got from the pantry in there. So you can make a lot of different things.” 

Our Partners Serving Seniors

Patricia is one of a community of seniors that the Food Bank, and our partner Grace Fellowship, serve. “We have quite a span of ages, though I think it probably leans towards seniors,” said Karen Seth, a pantry coordinator at Grace Fellowship. “One thing I think that we have really treasured is the relationships that we build with our guests and that they see us week in and week out. They’ll tell us what we’re going through. Some people have struggled with cancer, some people have struggled with losing their jobs, some people have been in and out of the hospital. And so, they tell us those things and we can be here and hear them and see them and receive them, and this can be a safe place for them.” 

It’s thanks to our supporters that we’re able to help our community and provide them with food that nourishes them and makes their lives better. This benefit extends beyond our participants. Rashmi, a volunteer at Grace Fellowship, told us, she loves coming to our partner pantry every Saturday. “I look forward to coming here,” she said. “I like giving food to the elderly and I feel happy when I give them extra food because I know them, and I know they are using the food.” 

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Providing Hope and Joy with Food

December 22, 2021

Soup. Soap. And Salvation. Since 1865, The Salvation Army has taken a holistic approach to serve those with the greatest need in our community. According to Diane Shatto, a Lieutenant and ordained minister at San Rafael’s branch of The Salvation Army, you can’t nourish people’s spirits until you nourish them with food. “That’s why our food pantry and home-delivered groceries are key activities for us.” 

The Salvation Army, the Food Bank’s partner agency, serves about 300 people every week at its San Rafael facility. Most are either families from the neighborhood or seniors from the 55+ apartment complexes nearby. The weekly pantry is centrally located, next to the Canal Area and other food bank partners – Marin Community Clinics and Canal Alliance making it accessible for many in the community. The surrounding area is home to many new immigrants and young families – 22% of the Canal population is under the age of 18. 

“The partnership with the Food Bank is, well, magical,” said David Shatto, who manages the site along with his wife Diane. “The weekly deliveries of fresh food from the Fresh Rescue program, that comes from your warehouse just down the street on Kerner, keep the pantry well-stocked.” The community-centric approach is the key to our partnerships with organizations throughout San Francisco and Marin. Diane added, “we have the physical space, but we didn’t have the material resources to serve the community, but the Food Bank’s weekly deliveries help. It’s one big piece of the puzzle.”  

Carol Gotti has been volunteering with the Salvation Army’s food program for over ten years, and the participants are a lot more to her than names and numbers. “I’ve gotten to know about people’s lives, and you get a feeling about the things that bring people joy,” she said.  

“One of the senior participants I deliver to has a lot of health issues and allergies, and since I have the time, I give her items that she requests like fruits that won’t interact with her medication or upset her stomach. People feel bad to waste, so it makes her happy that someone is looking out for her.” 

When Covid hit and people lost their jobs or hours, many joined Carol as volunteers. “A few are teachers, a few are retirees, and others worked in restaurants,” she said, “It’s important to be doing something so that you feel like you’re thriving, and these volunteers have stayed with us beyond the initial panic of the pandemic.”  

“Our model is servant leadership, and though it’s a good feeling to help people, it’s frustrating we can’t do more,” said Diane. “We wish people didn’t have to get creative about feeding their families. What really gets me are the children who walk around hungry, and no one knows or asks them. I was one of those kids. 

“I was the second youngest of five children with three older brothers who were always more aggressive than me about grabbing the food at dinnertime. I had hunger pains all the time, and other kids at school would make fun of me because I was skinny. It makes you feel inferior, you lose motivation, and you lose hope. And that’s how the cycle of poverty continues.”

“Ending hunger is about more than just giving food, it’s about providing hope. That’s why our volunteers create such strong relationships with the participants. When you give people food, you build trust, and you can help them in deeper ways. Ultimately, it’s about hope, and when you have that, you can improve lives.” 

Carol agreed, “Food is a wonderful way to bring people together, and once you’ve done that, you share life, and you have the sheer joy of being in community with others. For our participants, it’s then an opportunity to pass that on to their families and spread more joy. It’s a perfect 360-degree relationship.” 

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A Place for Food and a Place for Community

December 15, 2021

If you take a walk down 16th Street in the Mission on a Saturday morning, chances are you’ll see a steady stream of people going into an unassuming terra cotta-colored building and leaving with a full bag of groceries – and often a smile as well. That building is Grace Fellowship Community Church, and every Saturday, a rotating duo of coordinators lead a group of volunteers to pack seventy-plus bags of groceries. This week, Karen Seth and Cindy Peterson are spearheading the food pantry. 

The church has been doing this every week for over five years, and the Food Bank has been proud to be their source of groceries throughout. The half-dozen volunteers that showed up to help this particular Saturday unloaded, packed, and distributed enough food for about seventy grocery bags. “We love when we get all the produce,” said Cindy. Eggs and bags of onions and green beans were stacked, rice was apportioned, bread was sorted, and music played from someone’s portable speaker. The energy in the room was clearly upbeat. 

But it’s not just food that Grace Fellowship is passing out – they also provide a community, even in the time of COVID. “One thing that we have really treasured through the five years is the relationships that we build with our participants and that they see us week in and week out, and they’ll tell us what they’re going through,” said Karen. “Some people have struggled with cancer, some people have struggled with losing their jobs, some people have been in and out of the hospital. And so, they tell us these things, and we can be here and hear them and see them and receive them, and this can be a safe place for them.” 

Pantry coordinator Karen Seth opens a box of green beans.

It’s Not Just Food 

At the backbone of Grace Fellowship’s food pantry is its volunteers. Though it takes just a few hours per shift, the work volunteers do at Grace and beyond is vital to food pantries staying in operation. They lift heavy bags of produce, protein, and grains after they’re dropped off by the Food Bank truck, sort produce into assembly lines to make sure a soft pear doesn’t end up crushed in a grocery bag below a heavier squash or melon, and hand out full bags to participants as they come down the line – which lots of volunteers say is the most rewarding part of their work. Many come week after week to serve their community. There’s no one-size-fits-all description for volunteers at the Food Bank and at our partner pantries; they are young and elderly, regulars and non-regulars, from all walks of life. Some are exclusively volunteers, but others both receive food assistance and volunteer. Take Rashmi, a future nursing student who first came to Grace Fellowship in 2017. 

Rashmi packs grocery bags for participants alongside other volunteers.

When Rashmi moved from Nepal to San Francisco, she was a high schooler with parents that each worked two jobs. Her neighbor used to share the food she received from Grace Fellowship with Rashmi and her family, and eventually Rashmi tagged along: “She took me here one day, and I signed up that day. It was my way of kind of being responsible for the household, since my parents both worked full time, two jobs.”  

The food and community Rashmi received from Grace Fellowship not only allowed her to help provide for her family, but also freed up her time and mental space to concentrate on her studies. “It’s just kind of like, ‘oh, one burden off my shoulders,’ in a way,” she said. “I can go about my week without having to worry about what to get for lunch or think about how much to spend, because budgeting is one of my big challenges right now.” Giving back to Grace Fellowship is important to her, too. “I look forward to coming here, then giving food to elderlies and I feel happy when I give them extra food because I know them, and they are using the food.” 

One of the other volunteers helps an elderly participant, Patricia, load a bag of groceries onto her walker as her small white dog jumps down to give space.  

“This place, it’s so nice,” said Patricia with a big smile on her face. “They’re so kind to you. They always have extra food and offer it. And they remember your name, and you just feel blessed.” 

 

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A Historic Landmark Helps Nonprofit Group Deliver Groceries for Local Seniors

November 15, 2021

On the corner of Grant Ave and California St and just two blocks away from the famous San Francisco Chinatown’s Dragon Gate, Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral is known for being the oldest church in the city, dating back to 1854, having survived the 1906 earthquake. 

Today, along with their ministering services, Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral houses Groceries for Seniors, a weekly delivery program (now 20 years strong) staffed with senior volunteers and part-time employees that have fostered a hard-working community while giving back. 

“We’re all one big family,” said Clarissa, one of the volunteers.  

Taking Care of Each Other 

Groceries for Seniors operates out of the church basement where “each week, we create over 1,100 bags that we distribute to low-income seniors throughout the San Francisco area,” said Tim Thompson, who coordinates the deliveries. “We’re delivering about 240 to 250 bags per day.” 

The grocery bags are pre-packed with fresh produce, grains, and protein, which is partially provided in partnership by the Food Bank and supplemented with donations from local grocery retailers. On this Monday, the volunteers were packing the bags with eggs, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, cauliflower, and various fruits. 

“I worked with John Meehan, the founder of the Haight Ashbury Food Program, and Jesuit Brother Jack Graham to launch Groceries for Seniors back in 1998 and have been a board member ever since,” said Chief Programs Officer Sean Brooks, who oversees all the Food Bank’s services. “I am proud of our long and close partnership and the many people who can rely on Groceries for Seniors every week for a delivery of fresh, healthy food.” 

For the volunteers, it’s more than just assembling bags to serve their community. It’s what they enjoy doing, and it shows. 

“Whatever they need, we do our best to help the seniors, which makes me very happy,” said Mimi, another volunteer. 

Food Brings Us Together 

By around 10:30 in the morning, with the back of his van fully loaded, the delivery driver heads out to deliver the grocery bags. On Mondays, they deliver to Mei Lun Yuen, an apartment building in Chinatown that houses mostly low-income seniors and families of Chinese descent. 

Once the driver unloads the bags into the building lobby, one of the property managers of the building uses the intercom and notifies the residents that they can come down to pick up their bags. Before the COVID vaccine was widely distributed some buildings, like Mei Lun Yuen, had to do contactless delivery due to social distancing guidelines. Now the residents are happy to catch up with each other and the volunteers as they grab their bags and the conversation often turns to meals they are looking forward to.

“I’m happy to get the food,” said Liyi, a resident. “I sometimes make noodles, boiled eggs and potatoes—some simple meals I love.” 

Cindy, another resident, enjoys making dishes like spaghetti. “I use spaghetti sauce, onions, and meatballs to make it,” she said. 

Because all the senior residents are retired, they rely on food delivery to supplement their weekly food budget. That is why the Groceries for Seniors program is essential for low-income seniors, and the Food Bank is working with them to ensure that food is distributed on a weekly basis so that residents can make their favorite dishes. 

Volunteering with a Purpose 

Most of the volunteers at the Groceries for Seniors programs are also seniors and retired. They understand how important this program is and have the urge to help their own. This is true for Yip. 

“We’re still able to move around, so I’m here to help out my community,” she said. “I’ll only stop helping if I can’t move anymore.” 

Many of the volunteers only speak Chinese but can still connect with one another through the act of volunteering. 

“It’s important to take care of seniors and families, and we are a family here,” said Yip. 

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Home-Delivered Groceries a Lifeline for Former Chef | Dru’s Story

November 15, 2021

Fourteen years ago, Dru Devoe got on his Harley Davidson motorcycle and left his home in Florida with only clothes and whatever he could fit in his saddlebags. He landed in the Bay Area and eventually settled in Marin County.

In Florida, Dru owned a restaurant serving typical American fare. In his early days, he was the chef and wore all the hats. But as the business took off, he hired other people to help him. He always loved food. In Marin, he served food to the unhoused as a volunteer at the Ritter Center, which provides wraparound services, including providing food from the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.  Dru worked odd jobs around the county in between his volunteering.

In 2016, tragedy hit when Dru suffered a stroke. He lost his independence, yet getting help was incredibly challenging. “I used to be very social,” he said. “But the changes in my brain from the stroke gave me extreme social anxiety.” 

Dru had savings from the restaurant, but he tore through them during his recovery. Like so many people with large medical bills, he was left virtually penniless. “I had to get on disability,” he said. “But even with that, I could barely pay the rent.” 

One day, a friend introduced Dru to Rebecca. She saw the state of his empty fridge, and she gently asked him if he could go shopping, knowing he was having trouble being around people. Rebecca asked if she could help. As luck would have it, she was a volunteer at a food pantry in Marin that also provided home-delivered groceries, in partnership with the Food Bank. 

Since then, every week Rebecca brings Dru a bag of healthy food which has been a lifesaver to him. “Those were some lean times before the Food Bank,” he said. “I was losing weight and couldn’t afford to go to the market. 

“The food really helps me, and I love all the fruits and vegetables. I change my menu every week, depending on what’s in the bag. My favorites are eggplant for eggplant parmesan or chicken for every kind of recipe: chicken piccata, chicken marsala, or chicken parmesan. Sometimes there’s even fruits and vegetables that I’ve never tried before, so I google them and find new recipes.”  

At 62, with the food he gets from the Food Bank, Dru is doing better. He still has significant health problems, but having dependable food makes him feel healthier and helps him keep more of his independence. He feels incredible gratitude.

“A lot of good food goes to waste in this country, so the people who are giving those donations deserve kudos,” said Dru. “A big thank you goes out to everyone at the Food Bank.”

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The Breakfast Club: Tommy, William and Clifford

October 12, 2021

On a cold, damp San Francisco morning in late June, Clifford, William and Tommy sat together eating breakfast and sipping coffee in the parking lot of Glide Memorial Church, a long-time Food Bank partner. Their posture landed somewhere between socially distancing and huddling to keep warm and hear each other.  

The foldout table was placed there by Glide’s staff and volunteers in preparation for Glide’s daily free breakfast – a staple for many in San Francisco.  

A couple years ago William, Clifford and Tommy may have gathered for a quick breakfast in Glide’s basement dining hall. But when the pandemic hit, Glide immediately moved its meal program outdoors and started serving seniors and disabled individuals first.  

That’s how these three men met – joining the first group to line up, they found a seat together and quickly formed a sort of pandemic breakfast club.  

For William the mornings are a nice time to enjoy “some coffee, yogurt, pastries or a good boiled egg when they’re cooked right.” The cold, damp San Francisco weather is a little less to his liking. “I’d rather be downstairs in the basement at the dining table. Just to get out of the wind. I have lung problems, so the dampness and coolness set me off real easy.” 

Tommy who has been coming to Glide for 13 years says, “I like it anywhere I can have breakfast, but it’s pretty good inside.” 

Food Is Central  

Food is central to creating community. When we can come together around a shared meal, we build connections, we foster understanding, and we grow together. And this isn’t true just of a family dinner or a special holiday celebration—meal programs like Glide’s are part of the fabric of our community.  

George Gundry, who grew up in the Bay Area and is now Director of Glide’s Free Daily Meal Program put it simply: “I always knew about the meals line, I think everybody does. The meal line is the gateway to Glide.”  

Long before the pandemic the breakfast, lunch and dinner Glide prepared daily for people living in single room occupancies (or SROs) without cooking facilities, staying in shelters, or living on the streets served as a de facto family meal.  

For the breakfast club, the morning breakfast has become a ritual. Each day William, Clifford and Tommy pull up a chair in the parking lot and check in, swap stories and joke with the staff and volunteers.  

On this particular morning, William makes sure his friends are doing alright – Tommy recently got out of the hospital and Clifford has a bit of a cold. But like any good meal the checkups quickly turn to how is the food – William thinks it’s good, Tommy jokingly says, “its edible.” And then it’s on to stories of the old days. Each of these men has spent decades in San Francisco, and in a city where the only constant thing seems to be change and rising prices, they were part of some of its most iconic moments. Huddled over breakfast, William starts talking about his days protesting and Clifford shares stories of working at the shipyard building boats that went to Vietnam. 

Food does more than fill a hungry belly—it is essential to our humanity. A simple meal can nourish our whole being while turning strangers into friends and friends into family.

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The Food Bank and Glide Memorial Church: A Partnership of Caring

October 12, 2021

Since its beginning, the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank has partnered with hundreds of grassroots organizations, from Chinatown to Bayview and San Geronimo Valley to the Marin Canal Area. We pool our expertise and resources to provide dependable food and give people options that make sense for them and their families. 

One of our oldest partnerships is with Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Since the 1960’s, Glide has welcomed and served a diverse community of poor and marginalized people in the Tenderloin. Through the years it has helped thousands of people find support, stability, and new beginnings through a variety of innovative programs. 

The nourishing food provided by the Food Bank each year helps Glide prepare over 2,200 meals daily for people living in SROs without cooking facilities, staying in shelters, or living on the streets.  

Food as a Gateway to New Beginnings

“People come to Glide where they receive breakfast, lunch and dinner, with much of the food coming from the Food Bank,” Glide’s Director of Free Daily Meals, George, tells us. “Food is central to what we do here at Glide, so our partnership with the Food Bank is really at the heart of our work. The meals program is a gateway for folks to access our other services. They come for the meals, and while they’re here they learn about the other services we offer. That way they’re able to get help with other needs like hygiene kits, clothing, help in recovering from domestic violence or addiction, childcare, legal assistance, and health services. For most, it all starts with a healthy meal in our dining rooms.” 

Since the start of the pandemic, Glide made a pivot and moved the meals program outside as it was no longer safe to congregate together in the basement dining rooms. Tables and chairs were set up in the open air in good weather, and tents in bad.  

What began as a necessary and temporary solution turned out to have a positive outcome. In addition to keeping folks as safe as possible, moving the program outside made the atmosphere less cramped, more relaxed and less rushed, with more time for staff to interact with diners. Glide staff hope to apply that lesson as the program moves back inside, and shift operations to street level within the building, with more space and light and air. 

A Healthy Meal and a Bag of Groceries

Another COVID innovation is the Monday Pop-Up pantry on Ellis Street. Every Monday, the Food Bank and Glide work in close collaboration to thoroughly clean Ellis Street and set up a pantry where people can safely come and choose healthy food for themselves and their families. Since many in the neighborhood don’t have cooking facilities, the Food Bank provides foods that require little or no cooking. 

As George says, “Some of our clients come here for breakfast, but then stay for the pantry. So they leave with a full breakfast and a nice bag of groceries.” 

The symbiotic partnership between the Food Bank and Glide is emblematic of the kind of equitable, accessible, community-driven services we know work best in San Francisco and Marin. “So many in the community take advantage of both the meals and the groceries. The product varies so there’s always something new and people love that. There’s so much need. We’re always asking for something and the Food Bank is always stepping up. So, thank you.” 

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A Neighborhood Pantry Finds Its New Rhythm

August 19, 2021

Behind the masks on everyone’s face, you can tell it’s all smiles as a couple of dozen people make their way up the stairs at Covenant Presbyterian Church and onto the dance floor. After a year and a half practicing either in a parking lot, where the pavement makes it hard to dance, or on Zoom, where it is hard to follow the instructor, they are ready to tear up the dance floor of this unassuming church.

“It’s about fellowship for the Church,” said the class instructor, Darlene Masamori (everyone calls her Dar) as her students warm up by dancing in perfect synchrony.

The class has been going on for years and usually draws a consistent group of 25 to 40 people – both parishioners and other community members – every Saturday. But it isn’t just about coming together to break a sweat and have fun. “Every dollar goes back to the food pantry,” explained Dar referring to the food pantry Covenant Presbyterian has been running downstairs for the past 15 years.

People Shouldn’t be Struggling

Covenant Presbyterian sits at the corner of 14th Avenue and Taraval Street and is deeply embedded in San Francisco’s Sunset District.

“We decided to do a food pantry because the food bank asked for a pantry in this area,” shared pantry coordinator Dave Lew, reflecting on when the pantry first opened 15 years ago. “We started very small and we learned on the job.”

It shows. Even after just three weeks since the Church reopened its pantry due to a lack of space to safely operate during COVID-19, the pantry is a well-oiled machine. Participants – who come from all over the neighborhood, not just the pews of this church – only wait a few minutes before entering the pantry, receiving a bag of groceries and heading out. While the pantry is still pre-bagging groceries, knowing people may not want everything in their bag, they set up a swap table outside, for participants to leave behind items they may not want for others who can use them.

“This is all about feeding the community and helping people who are hungry and shouldn’t be struggling just because it’s expensive to live in the city,” shared Harvey Louie, another pantry coordinator.

A Gradual Reopening

By 10:15 – just as dancers are making their way upstairs – volunteers are downstairs cleaning up the food pantry. Week three after a more than year-long hiatus everyone is excited to be back.

“We have a good time doing this and miss each other. So, we were excited,” said Dave. But right now, “we have to keep the number of volunteers down because we don’t have that many recipients.”

The rhythm of life shifted significantly during the time of COVID. While the volunteers (and dancers) have come back to Covenant Presbyterian in full force, many former participants have since found other avenues to get food, like Home Delivered Groceries or other pantries. With just 30 of the 100 people they served a year ago, reopening has been slow.

But pantry coordinators aren’t discouraged. They are working with the Food Bank to determine who is receiving delivery, who is going to other pantries, and how they can conduct outreach to others in the community who may need support. Each week they see a few more people.

A Good Retirement Gig

Just like the dance class, the pantry draws a loyal following of volunteers. Ranging in age from teenagers to over 90-year-olds, many have been coming since the pantry first opened its doors 15 years ago.

One such volunteer, Warren Lew, started while working at a local grocery store. At that time, he’d drop off donated or extra food from the store during his lunch hour. When he retired, he started volunteering weekly. He has since become a one-man welcome crew, standing outside in the thick fog to greet participants as they enter.

While he’s glad to be back, he misses the old participants. “It was a very wonderful group of people, the clients before, we had a little chitchat with them.”

For Warren, who is not a member of the church, this has also been a great way to give back to the community. “I grew up in Chinatown, but we moved out here a few years back,” shared Warren. “I’m giving back to the neighbors in San Francisco.”

With that, it’s time for dance class and Warren has no intention of missing it. Just like he recruited his friends to volunteer, he tries to rope in anyone who will listen to come upstairs and join in the fun.

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Support Covenant Presbyterian Church’s food pantry by signing up for line dancing: http://www.covenantpcsf.org/Ministries/linedancing.php.

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Support Our AAPI Partners

May 28, 2021

More than half of the Food Bank’s participants are Asian Americans who are struggling to put food on the table. Despite the challenges, we’ve seen the resilience, solidarity, and sense of community from our neighbors.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and we want to thank all of our partners who serve the AAPI community – we couldn’t do the work without them! This month please consider supporting one of our many AAPI partners. Here are just a few:

APA Family Support Services
San Francisco Community Fellowship
United Playaz
First United Presbyterian Church
Sunset Ministry
Salvation Army: All Nations Corps
West Bay Pilipino Multiservice Center
Chinatown YMCA

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Fighting Food Apartheid During the Pandemic

May 7, 2021

In the year since the start of the pandemic shutdown countless neighborhood food pantries have closed due to safety reasons and hundreds more shifted their distribution models or expanded grocery delivery to continue serving the community. 

Take St. Paul Tabernacle Baptist Church, which has operated a neighborhood pantry in the Bayview for over 28 years. Pre-pandemic the church was serving between 85 to 100 participants. When shelter-in-place went into effect, not only did the church have to stop indoor church services, with nowhere safe to host them, but they also had to close their doors for the weekly pantry. 

Mother Beverly Taylor, who ran the food pantry at St. Paul Tabernacle Baptist Church, was determined to keep serving her community. “We’re still involved and running,” said Mother Beverly. “Unfortunately, with this [pandemic] we have to keep going.” 

In order to do so they joined forces with the San Francisco African American Faith-Based Coalition (SFAAFBC), alongside with 20 other churches, to deliver groceries to those who are homebound. 

Beverly knew finding a way to keep service going during the pandemic would help provide fresh, healthy food to those who couldn’t afford it and had nowhere else to turn.

Challenges in the Southeast 

Bayview–Hunters Point is a neighborhood with more convenience stores than grocery stores. In fact, there’s only currently one large-scale grocery store located on Williams Avenue–that is one grocery store for an 8.6 square mile neighborhood that is home to 106,731 people. 

At the same time, 37 percent of Bayview-Hunters Point residents, many of whom are Black/African American descent, live on less than 200 percent under the federal poverty level while 19 percent are at or below the federal poverty level. Over 40 percent of infants and youth live with families who earn below or at the federal poverty level. 

As Beverly explained, before their pantry opened there wasn’t a place anywhere for those in need of food assistance to turn to. “We saw that a lot of people really need the food but didn’t know where to go get it,” she said. “There wasn’t enough being distributed, so that’s how we got involved.” 

This problem is not unique to San Francisco and Bayview-Hunters Point. The USDA estimates 39 million people live in neighborhoods like Bayview-Hunters Point without adequate access to fresh, healthy food within a reasonable proximity. 

“When COVID shut everything down, not only was there an already food insecure population, but residents were also further impacted due to job losses as a result of various industries having to shut down,” said Program Coordinator Claudia Wallen, who coordinates with community partners in Bayview-Hunters Point. “So, it double affected that area, I think, because the community was already so underserved.” 

Call It What It Is: Food Apartheid 

Areas that lack access to fresh, healthy food are often referred to as “food deserts.” However, that term fails to acknowledge that a lack of food access, and the negative health outcomes it causes, disproportionately impact BIPOC communities.

By using the term “food apartheid,” we clearly acknowledge that neighborhoods deemed food deserts are predominantly in BIPOC communities. We also acknowledge that redlining (including supermarket redlining), which is the racially discriminatory practice of denying vital services and/or avoiding investment in specific neighborhoods based on the race/ethnicity of the residents, plays a huge role in food access. As a result, 19.1 percent of Black households and 15.6 percent of Latinx households experienced food insecurity in 2019 alone. Indigenous peoples also experience the shortest lifespan from diabetes as a result of lack of access to fresh healthy food in their communities. 

Food apartheids are a result of persistent structural and racial inequalities that prevent communities of color from accessing better socio-economic opportunities and essential services like access to fresh and healthy food, public transportation, public safety services, and nutrition education programs in K-12 public schools. 

In our own community, we see that the Visitacion Valley, Bayview-Hunters Point, Treasure Island, and Marin City neighborhoods have the least access to food and are some of the most cut off from public transportation. Many residents in these neighborhoods would have to rely on driving a car or commuting for at least an hour to areas like downtown San Francisco. These same neighborhoods are home to some of the highest percentages of Black/African American residents: 33 percent of the Bayview-Hunters Point population, 13 percent of the Visitacion Valley population and 24 percent of the Treasure Island compared to just 5 percent of San Francisco as a whole. Marin City has the largest Black population (up to 42 percent of the city’s population) in Marin County.

Community Partners Tackle Food Apartheid 

For the Food Bank, food for all means working closely with trusted community partners like St. Paul Tabernacle Baptist Church to ensure the Food Bank is supporting positive health outcomes. We also work with neighborhood partners to open new pantries in areas that both lack food access and where we can better serve communities disproportionately impacted by structural racism. In some cases, this means new types of partnerships like the one with the San Francisco African American Faith-Based Coalition (SFAAFBC) to deliver groceries to those who are unable to come out to pantries.

“Community organizations like SFAAFBC know the community well,” said Claudia. “Grassroots, boots on the ground organizations are more trusted by community members and seen as a friend or fellow neighbor. This is why collaborating with them like the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank is now doing is very important.” 

What Food Means to the Community 

During each grocery delivery, Beverly personally calls the participants to let them know ahead of time when their groceries are arriving. “They’re so thankful because many of them are disabled, and we’re out there getting food to the people that need it,” she said.  

According to Claudia, the food means everything to the community. “To Bayview-Hunters Point residents, it’s important to have access to the same healthy food that other, less marginalized communities get to enjoy and often take for granted.” 

As long as there is a need Beverly plans to keep delivering, and the Food Bank plans to keep supporting her efforts to improve food access in areas that experience food apartheid throughout our community.

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