Category: Stories

Empowering Community with En2Action

June 29, 2023

“I’m always saying, pay attention to the quietest people. It doesn’t mean they don’t have something to say; it just means they’re not comfortable saying it yet,” observed Andrea Baker, the executive director of En2Action, a San Francisco nonprofit that works to promote equity and transformative social good. Elevating community perspectives to enable change is critical to her organization’s work. “Our job is to build comfort,” said Andrea. “That’s when they start finding their voice.”

A flyer for participants interested in enrolling in CalFresh, with the headline "Want to save money on food?"

En2Action is a vital community partner of the Food Bank and has extensive experience conducting robust community engagement that centers racial equity and gathers input from diverse communities to inform community and economic development planning. En2Action is collaborating with the Food Bank on several initiatives that address root causes of hunger in San Francisco and Marin, including the Root Cause Action Learning & Leading to achieve Food SecuritY in Marin Project, also known as RALLY Marin.

Led and facilitated by En2Action, the RALLY Marin Project is a one-year planning grant and engagement effort supported by Feeding America that centers the wisdom of people experiencing food insecurity, engages a task force of community-based organizations and multi-service providers with a goal toward removing systemic barriers to CalFresh benefits in Marin County, which disproportionately impacts people of color.

“Our work with RALLY Marin is, again, about elevating community voices. We are reaching out to food providers, pantries, and other organizations that go beyond just providing food. In particular, with this program, we’re looking at CalFresh and why more folks of color are not utilizing it, particularly in Latinx communities.”

A group meeting at En2Action.

Rooted in Community

When we spoke to Andrea, the nonprofit had just moved into the new Southeast Community Center in Bayview-Hunters Point. A Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)-led organization, En2Action’s work includes a history of initiatives that intersect food, racial justice, and economic equity. Looking out of the office space windows, she observed that many of the challenges facing the neighborhood and other communities of color in the City are rooted in historic racist policies such as redlining and urban renewal that displaced thousands of Black Americans — erasing generational wealth in the process.

“How do most families build wealth in this area? You build it through real estate; you buy a home. It supports your kid going to college. You can help somebody open a business. That was taken from us,” she says. She notes that those antecedent inequities, compounded by the region’s high cost of living, contributed to San Francisco’s shrinking Black population — from around 13% in the 1980s to under 5% today. “I have seen this neighborhood go from 75% African American to where we are today; just about 30% of the Bayview population is Black.”

Andrea wants to help the remaining enclaves of color in the City thrive and believes food is a catalyst for community development.

“Food has been a way out for many people of color and immigrant communities. It’s been a way out for a business, a catering business, a food truck, a restaurant,” says Andrea. Four years ago, En2Action launched the Bayview Bistro food hub, transforming a vacant lot into a festive gathering space featuring a variety of savory cuisines from Bayview-based vendors. But when the pandemic halted in-person gatherings, life moved online almost overnight, forcing the nonprofit to pivot. The shift was challenging, as they had to acquire a commercial kitchen and develop Bayview Bistro boxes for online food ordering. Its reach was expanded further through pandemic resources to fight hunger. “And that kept our vendors going. Some vendors who’ve worked with us said, ‘I kept my lights on.’ And that was an amazing thing.”

Dontaye Ball, owner of Gumbo Social, wears a hoodie emblazoned with "Eat More Gumbo."
Dontaye Ball, owner of Gumbo Social

The learnings from Bayview Bistro and other neighborhood-focused economic development programs, including Sell Black — a digital marketing program to increase the online presence of Black businesses — contributed to the development of its Ujamaa Kitchen. Modeled on the fourth principle of Kwanzaa — cooperative economics — the initiative is an incubator for food entrepreneurs that features a six-month culinary boot camp, certification to operate a commercial kitchen, and a myriad of business mentorship services. Ujamaa Kitchen alum Chef Dontaye Ball, whose pop-up restaurant Gumbo Social specializes in gumbo and soul food, has high praise for Andrea.

“You just look at her impact on our business. Once we got access to that kitchen, that opened the door to be able to push Gumbo Social forward,” Ball said. “Over $35,000 in sales came directly from referrals or opportunities that came directly from En2Action,” he added. “For some people, that’s not a lot, but for us, it’s a game changer. That’s two months of payroll; that gives us an opportunity to build for the future.” That future included a brick-and-mortar Gumbo Social restaurant that opened in early June in the Bayview. And that is an outcome that En2Action enthusiastically applauds. “It’s really important to me, to us, that we are not simply giving fish. We are teaching folks how to fish,” said Andrea. “Food is an empowering thing.”

Getting Perspectives on Marin

A San Francisco-Marin Food Bank branded van drives through the Marin hills.
Our Mobile Food Pantry is part of food outreach in Marin County.

For several months En2Action’s community empowerment lens has been focused on a region rife with systemic inequities 50 miles north of the Bayview. RaceCounts.org ranks Marin County as the second most racially disparate county in California, finding the Latinx community the most impacted across all disparity indicators. Twenty-five percent of Latinx children in the county live below the federal poverty level. The RALLY Marin initiative, led by En2Action, features a unique partnership with a task force of community-based organizations seeking to identify and elevate food insecurity solutions that prioritize the lived experiences and perspectives of people most impacted by the issue. Key to finding those solutions is the targeted community outreach conducted through RALLY Marin, which includes listening with intentionality to the concerns of Latinx residents who may qualify for food assistance. The results have been more than revealing.

“The level of information from community members we were able to hear was authentic, and heart-centered,” said the Food Bank’s Senior Program Manager Alex Danino, reflecting on the focus groups led by En2Action in late April. “There were super-rich discussions that spoke to the challenges and the opportunities for growth,” she added. As part of the team developing recommendations and plans for implementing learnings from RALLY Marin, Alex was impressed by the participant feedback in the listening sessions. “I believe the feedback will tell us how and what we can do next on our outreach efforts,” she observed. “A new way of doing our work is emerging, including how we are working with community partners, the county and co-creating options for access, all based on community voices.”

Alex Danino (top) and Liliana Sandoval (bottom)

Liliana Sandoval, Associate Director of Programs, Outreach for CalFresh, looks forward to the outcomes revealed from the focus groups. “En2Action is going to gather all that feedback, analyze it and propose solutions that we could then take for more access and utilization of CalFresh,” Liliana said. And she adds that important questions will arise from these community engagement efforts. “How could we bring Marin County administrators into the fold and get them involved in co-creating solutions? What can the county do with this information that we’ve gotten directly from people who have not accessed the program because of barriers? Just what work needs to be done at all levels?” En2Action will continue its outreach, partnership, and analysis efforts through RALLY Marin, delivering a Community Plan in the early summer.

As for Andrea Baker, she firmly believes providing community members opportunities to be heard and ask authentic questions about their needs are catalysts for real change, whether in Marin or San Francisco’s Bayview. “If we can engage, empower, and then provide the resources for people to act, then I think we can get a whole lot of stuff done,” she said. Pointing to an En2Action team gathered in a meeting room, “You know, the 12 of us here can’t do it all, but if the 12 of us here, every year, can impact one person and those people can go out and impact one more person, I’m all for that. I can live with those numbers.”

A RALLY Marin focus group.

CalFresh Ripple Effects: Miguel’s Story

June 14, 2023

Miguel's artwork hangs in front of his window: 3 black and white cubes made from Venetian blinds.
Miguel’s recent artwork

At Rosa Parks Pop-up Pantry, Miguel lights up when he starts talking about his art. He sets down his grocery bags and whips out his phone to show us his latest creation, hanging in front of his second story window: a mobile made entirely of syringes (with the needles removed, of course), that blows and gently spins in the breeze, while explaining: “I used to work for the opera, until I retired five years ago. I also made costumes for theatre groups, foundations and drag queens. I have a program going after I retired, [making] mobiles and artwork with the recycled materials I [find] on the street, thrown away.”  

A Loss for the Community 

Miguel is a longtime member of the arts scene in San Francisco, a gay man who’s been HIV+ for nearlyMiguel is smiling, with his handlebar mustache, red scarf/necktie and maroon sweater. 40 years, an activist, and a pantry participant since 2020 in his neighborhood of the Western Addition. He’s also one of roughly 101,000 CalFresh (known as SNAP federally) recipients in San Francisco who saw their grocery budget decimated overnight. This is due to the federal government’s decision to cut emergency allotments, which boosted CalFresh benefits by an average of $160 for recipients in San Francisco during the pandemic. That’s a loss of nearly $12 million a month in food assistance for our neighbors. 

“I applied for the [CalFresh] benefits at the beginning of COVID. I was having a hard time with money. And it was very nice, especially when they started putting the extra funds in it,” Miguel told us. Miguel says he was receiving close to $200 during the pandemic, but after speaking with a CalFresh representative that same morning we met, he learned he’d be receiving just $23. That’s why the Food Bank Policy & Advocacy team is advocating to raise the minimum benefit to $50 in the state Senate this year – because for Miguel and many others, “it’s not worth going through all the [paperwork] trouble for $20.” 

Meals are Best Shared 

Miguel poses in front of his artFor Miguel, his CalFresh benefits were a supplemental support that helped him stretch his budget and extend a little kindness to other friends who were struggling during the throes of the pandemic. “I was able not only to get things for myself, but I was able to invite friends to get food with me so we can have dinner together. I did it with two friends, maybe every two weeks. Eating alone is not really the best thing. Having company and being able to provide something a little extra, that was very nice. It really made a difference for me and my friends.” 

In addition to dinners with friends, Miguel finds support through groups like the 50 Plus Network from the SF AIDS Foundation, which connects long-term HIV survivors through meetups and events. Miguel and his current housemate also stop by the Rosa Parks Senior Center most days for lunch, and utilize the Food Bank’s weekly pantries, where Miguel picks up groceries for them both: “The sweet potatoes are for my roommate, because he can’t come to the pantry – he’s disabled. So [the pantry] not only helps me, it helps someone else.” 

A Positive Ripple Effect

As federal lawmakers strip proven poverty-fighting programs and safety nets from our neighbors, andMiguel waves goodbye from his apartment window. leave food banks to pick up the slack, it’s essential that the Food Bank maintains access to the fresh produce, proteins, and grains that 53,000 neighbors rely on weekly to nourish themselves. “The benefit is greater than just food,” Miguel explained to us. “At my age, I don’t think there’s any stigma – I encourage other people to apply for these services. I have diabetes, so I have to be careful about what I’m eating. And besides the food, I can use the money [I save] on other things that are beneficial for my health or enjoyment. It’s a ripple effect; it magnifies your life in all these positive ways.” 

Growing Food Sovereignty in the Bayview

May 24, 2023

Earth Day at Florence Fang Community Farm (FFCF) was a feast for the senses: blue skies and verdant greens offset by blooming wildflowers, the smell of soil, and the conversation of food pantry participants and farm volunteers mixing with bird calls and Chinese folk songs. 

Nestled in the heart of the Bayview, FFCF is a “community center, outdoors,” in the words of Director Ted Fang. In addition to cultivating the land, FFCF runs a farmer’s market-style food pantry that opens at 9 a.m. each Saturday to serve the community with fresh fruits, leafy green vegetables, and proteins, provided by the Food Bank. The farm also provides the harvests of the season to pantry participants! 

“A Community Center”  

As one of the most productive urban farms in the Bay Area, we’re not surprised to see swaths of volunteers showing up throughout the morning in response to FFCF’s call for an Earth Day volunteer workday. Many of the longtime volunteers arrived earlier in the day, some stopping to pick up groceries at FFCF’s food pantry, and others heading directly over to the farm to begin tending to the land.  Woman in face mask standing in front of garden plots

Some regular volunteers like Ms. Chang, who we met after picking up her groceries, have a multifaceted relationship with the farm. As a retiree, she first came to the farm in search of socialization and something to do with her free time. Since then, she’s brought her sister, daughter, and grandchildren into the fold: “I enjoy volunteering at the farm because it is a community center, but for growing food! I get my exercise through this endeavor, bring home delicious harvests, and have a lot of fun along the way. You’ll have to come visit us when we put on talent shows. We love to sing and dance.” 

Another of FFCF’s longtime volunteers, Mrs. Li, offers to take us on a tour of the farm. As we draw closer to the community plots, scattered groups of elders are hard at work watering, thinning out crops to provide adequate space for growth, and weeding the beds. True to Ms. Chang’s word, several women working on the same plot join in singing Chinese folk songs, their harmonies joyfully carrying across the farm. One volunteer is nonchalantly placing some of FFCF’s bees on the flowering pea shoots with his bare hands, so they can pollinate the crop. 

Unifying Roots  

FFCF was originally founded as a gathering space for Chinese immigrants moving into the Bayview neighborhood – a historically Black neighborhood in San Francisco. Over the years, it morphed into a space to serve the broader Bayview community. In 2020, it was renamed from the “Asian Community Garden” to “Florence Fang Community Farm” to reflect that intention, while honoring Ted’s mother and her history of civic contribution.  

Additionally, FFCF houses a Black Organic Farmers program, started by Bayview born and raised Farmer in Charge Faheem Carter. Through this model of self-directed organizing and programming of different Bayview communities, volunteers at FFCF cultivate crops native to their culture and heritage. As Ted says, “It’s important for everyone to be comfortable with the food they want to eat and have control over their food. Food sovereignty gives people control of their food, and that’s what we’re doing.” 

Food sovereignty is a radical shift for this neighborhood, as the Bayview has historically been subject to food apartheid due to racism, redlining, city neglect and disinvestment. That’s why the farm is such a critical resource for neighbors – and why the Food Bank is honored to support FFCF’s mission of bringing in even more healthy, fresh foods to the neighborhood via their food pantry.  

The Farm, Beyond Food 

The impacts of the farm go well beyond fresh vegetables to take home at the end of a workday. For many at FFCF, including many of the Chinese elders present at the Earth Day workday, volunteering has led to fruitful friendships. Some volunteers were even inspired to buy smartphones for the first time and download WeChat [a Chinese messaging app] to stay in touch after leaving the farm.  

Farming is networking: you put green onions in one plot, napa cabbage in the other, and the byproducts make the soil richer for the other crops, building networks of nutrients. And this is also reflective of communities above the ground. At its heart, this is the definition of community building. You might come to volunteer or harvest vegetables and end up also reaping the rewards of a thriving network of relationships.  

Like Mrs. Li explained to us of the abundant plant tong ho [chrysanthemum greens], “you’ll see it everywhere in the plots, because it keeps volunteering itself,” or self-seeding. In this same way, the volunteers who continue showing up, tending to the land, and making connections are creating their own abundance. 

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?”