Early October is always a thrilling time in the Bay Area, with the Blue Angels flying in perfect formation in clear skies and balmy winds. For us, it’s an exciting time because of the Fleet Week Sailors and Marines taking civic action at our San Francisco warehouse. We greatly appreciate the military members who helped us deploy thousands of lbs. of rice as part of our weekly service to 32,000 San Francisco and Marin households, including many military families.
One of our Fleet Week helpers, Marine Corps Chaplain Andrea Gilkey said her family depended on food assistance when she was a child.
“What inspires me, and what’s exciting to me about this food bank, is that they’re set up like a farmers market. To give people health choices, which we didn’t have. So, I’m thrilled about that,” she said.
In 2017, Breadwinner donor and volunteer Joel Malard approached us to propose a “social sting operation.” His objective was grassroots job creation – literally one job at a time. He achieved this by funding the salary for our Policy & Advocacy Manager Becky Gershon (pictured above right) for one year. We recently interviewed Joel about what inspired his generous gift.
Breadwinner donor and volunteer, Joel Malard
What prompted you to make such a generous gift to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank?
First, I want to thank all of you at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank for your openness in taking part in my bizarre pilot study about grassroots job creation. Your dedication to your mission, your work, and your vision made a success of what could have been a pointless bet on the human spirit.
After experiencing the ups and downs of working in Silicon Valley start-ups, I was laid off in 2012. My first reaction was to create jobs, drawing on the wisdom of my father who taught me “if you can’t join them, beat them.” He applied this approach to the job market, to education opportunities, to any adversity that life threw at him. So, I set a goal to employ one person for one year – my own “social sting operation.”
During this time of reflection, I remembered stories I had heard about my grandparents generosity: when a traveler came asking for food at their farm, they would give him work, food and shelter for a couple of days, and on his last morning, a packed lunch for the day. It was an old tradition that I could not directly match in these modern times. But I felt compelled to somehow fulfill this tradition in my own way.. As my plan evolved, I decided to delegate the hiring to someone else – and so I reached out to the Food Bank.
The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank was the first Bay Area institution that I contacted. It fulfills an essential, basic human need, and it has a clear mandate and immediate tangible returns to the local community. I had volunteered at the Food Bank and been impressed by its reach and operations. The Food Bank’s location in San Francisco would make a successful pilot study in grassroots job creation both immediately relevant and widely visible.
My donation came with a few strings attached, which I felt were essential for the experience to be positive for everyone. First, the money was for a new position competitively open to all. Second, it had to be fully aligned with the Food Bank’s mission. Third, the new position needed to have a fighting chance of becoming self-funded within a year. As a result, the whole cycle – from writing the job description to hiring a candidate – was solely the responsibility of the Food Bank. It was the right decision.
What policy or advocacy issues are most important to you and why?
Food is always a top priority; as the saying goes, “a famished stomach has no ear.” We will always have needs, but today the misery in San Francisco is heartbreaking. The policy issue that matters most to me is to form outstanding leaders for tomorrow and to plan for the next generation after them, both in regards to professional mastery and moral courage. My donation is an act of faith in the American People and the resilience of its spirit.
What opportunities do you see for California to lead on addressing food insecurity?
California is positioned to lead the nation in addressing food insecurity if only because its agriculture sector is the largest. The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank has a stellar reputation in food distribution and expertise that could benefit other food banks around the USA.
Advocacy, coupled with innovation, is key. A comprehensive plan to address food insecurity must also include housing, water management, and the containment of soil pollution. Clean water distribution, recycling, and desalination are critical to food production worldwide. These are areas where Bay Area entrepreneurs may make a lasting contribution.
Last but not least, CalFresh (food stamps) is remarkable because, among other things, it brings balance to nutrition by making access to fresh, nutritious produce available to low-income neighbors. The balance between a fulfilling piece of bread and a nutritious piece of fish echoes the broader need for balance between basic human needs and the imperatives of society. California Food Banks are, in my opinion, ideally positioned to inform and encourage the lateral thinking and the moral courage required to build a striving community constantly reshaped by technological and financial progress.
In addition to sponsoring our Hunger Action Month giving match in September, Starbucks rolled out it’s FoodShare donation program in San Francisco and Marin this year. Every day, they donate thousands of pounds of freshly prepared, unsold food, which the Food Bank gathers, then delivers daily to partners like St. Anthony’s Dining Room and GLIDE Memorial Church. The food is then served to our community’s most vulnerable residents, including homeless neighbors. We recently sat down with Matt Green, Regional Vice President for Starbucks to learn more about what inspires Starbucks and their employees to give back.
5 Questions with Matt Green, Regional Vice President for Starbucks
1) Why does your company support the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank?
At Starbucks, we are committed to donating 100% of unsold food from our stores every day. Without the support from the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, we could not make this happen. We are happy to partner in ensuring food goes to those most in need.
2) What are your philanthropic goals?
As a company serving communities globally, we are committed to giving back. From food donations, to creating jobs and volunteering our time. Its core to our mission and values as a company: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.
3) What are the ways you and your employees give back?
Community service is a cornerstone of our commitment to each community we serve. Our partners often work in the same communities they live in and making an impact is something that drives many of them. It’s part of the pride that comes with putting on the green apron…doing our part to not only deliver the Starbucks Experience to customers but making a difference in the communities we serve.
4) What advice do you have for your corporate peers when it comes to giving back to the community?
We take a great deal of pride in setting an example and working with other companies and organizations to create even bigger impact…we are always happy to share in the things we are doing and working with others to help.
5) What is something your company is doing that would surprise our readers?
Starbucks is not only innovating how we support our local communities we serve, but also how we support our employees as well! We have launched a program with Arizona State University to support part-time and full-time employees with 100% tuition coverage to earn their bachelor’s degree. To date we have supported 2,000 graduates and 10,000 current students.
It’s a cool evening in San Francisco’s Crocker-Amazon neighborhood, with a healthy layer of the city’s ubiquitous fog blanketing the sky above – but it’s a much different story down below, where a certain warmth glows from Tony Garcia’s home yoga studio. It’s here where the muscular. mustachioed man in his 50s says he does his best work.
“I got into yoga several years ago as a way to center myself. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to become a certified instructor so I could spread the goodness to friends and family,” he says.
Tony and his wife Rachel went so far as to convert the downstairs section of their home into a full-blown yoga studio – complete with bamboo flooring, rubber mats, and special mood lighting. Soon after, they started hosting bi-monthly sessions.
“We invited family members and neighbors to give it a try. It was slow going at first, but the idea eventually caught on,” says Tony. “Now we see 5 to 10 people every other week.”
What also caught on was how the Garcias would use their newfound love of yoga to give back. “I knew I wasn’t in it to make money … instead, I wanted this all to mean something more.”
That’s when Tony hearkened back to a volunteer shift he attended at the Food Bank as part of his employment with the City and County of San Francisco. “It was a while ago, but I remember being so impressed with the operation…about how much work goes into feeding people in this city who don’t have enough food to be healthy,” he recalls. “And I thought that THIS was the time that I could do more to help.”
The Garcias decided to ask their “students” to give whatever they felt the lesson was worth, with all of the proceeds making their way into a special teapot that sits in the yoga studio. Then, every few weeks when the teapot gets full, Tony or Rachel donate it to the Food Bank.
“That was about 7 years ago…and I’m happy to say that we have never wavered,” Tony says. “100-percent of all the money that’s been raised through my yoga classes has been used to help feed the less fortunate.”
Food Bank spokesperson Mark Seelig applauds the Garcias’ extraordinary efforts. “It goes to show you that there are more ways to be philanthropic than by just pulling out your checkbook or swiping your credit card. The best part is that these funds all add up, and help us make a real difference in our mission to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin.”
Over the years, the Garcias have become way more savvy in their gift-giving. “We now wait until the Food Bank offers some sort of corporate match to donate – so we can double the impact!” They’re not finished just yet either. Tony says he plans to keep doing this … “as long as my body holds out, and as long as we have friends and family who want to support the Food Bank in the most calming way possible!”
If you are giving to the Food Bank in a creative or unusual way, please leave us a comment. And click here if you would like to make a generous donation to the Food Bank.
Forty thousand! That’s the number of volunteers who have walked through our doors and helped sort produce, pack one-pound bags of rice, or staff one of our Produce Pop-Ups. Volunteers are not just a way for us to involve the community in our mission to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin – they are intrinsic to our entire operation.
We’ve done the math, and 40,000 volunteer working shifts in our warehouses and out in the community put in as many hours as 62 full-time employees. To put it simply, we couldn’t accomplish all that we do without the support of our amazing volunteers.
Carly Levin is a Food Bank board member and the executive director of JP Morgan Chase & Co. She and other employees have been among our biggest supporters, volunteering dozens of hours in our warehouse, and making generous donations – including a $25,000 match for our first-ever volunteer-only matching gift challenge in April. Their support is essential for keeping many of our vital programs up and running.
“There is no better way to spend the day,”says Levin, who recently volunteered at a food pantry. “Participants are filled with gratitude for the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables they receive to feed their families. And our job as volunteers is to make them feel welcome.”
In April, we hosted a special celebration in our San Francisco warehouse to mark Volunteer Appreciation Week. We invited some of our most ardent supporters for a day of fun, food and carnival games as a way to show our gratitude. Click here to view our photo album from Volunteer Fest 2018.
We distribute 48 million pounds of food to nearly a quarter of a million people every year and volunteers are essential to this work. Thank you, volunteers – for your dedication and enthusiasm for helping our community.
When you enter Gary Maxworthy and Radha Stern’s home, the scent of Radha’s homemade oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies wafts through the air. If you catch them around mealtime, Radha is likely to offer you lunch.
Food is family, friendship, and community to the couple. They’ve made feeding struggling neighbors their personal mission. Their connection to the Food Bank is so strong that when they got married in 2000, they tied the knot at our San Francisco warehouse.
Food Connects Us
“Food is nurturing,” said Radha, who has been a volunteer fundraiser for the Food Bank for many years. “Whether it’s a hot dog or a gourmet meal, food connects us. It’s the time when people come together. But if you’re hungry, you can’t think, and you can’t succeed.”
Both Gary and Radha have experienced scarcity in their lives. Gary grew up post World War II in England where there were often shortages. Radha grew up in a working-class American family, and she was a single mom in her 20’s, struggling to put food on the table.
The couple met later in life in the food brokerage business. After a successful career, Gary decided to retire in his mid-50’s and devote his life to service. He ended up working at the Food Bank and creating the Farm to Family program.
A Food Revolution
Farm to Family radically changed food banking in the Bay Area, and across the country. Before the program, people received mostly canned and boxed food, but Gary convinced farmers to donate their extra produce. Today, the majority of what the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank distributes is fresh fruits and vegetables.
“I’m so proud of the fact that we are able to provide people with healthy, nutritious food both with Farm to Family and the work Radha has done,” said Gary. “Our small ideas have turned into something.”
Barbara Elliott caught herself chuckling the other day as she was breaking down food boxes inside St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in San Francisco’s Lower Pac Heights. It was Monday morning and the longtime parishioner was volunteering her time at the food pantry in the downstairs community room.
“I’m laughing because I recently volunteered at the Food Bank’s warehouse, and my job there was to build the food boxes… here I am now, tearing them down!”
Indeed, the 74-year-old Elliott has come full circle. She has seen how the food comes into our warehouse and how it’s packed for distribution and is also intimately aware of where it goes — into the hands of our neighbors in need.
VOLUNTEERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
Elliott is one of 40,000 volunteers who gave their time this year to help the Food Bank in its mission to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin. That’s the equivalent of 70 full-time employees, and every last person is needed to distribute just over 48 million pounds this year. “There is absolutely no way we could move that much food and feed that many people if we didn’t have volunteers like Barbara, willing to give up a few hours of their time each week, to pack food, hand out food, and do it with a smile,” says Food Bank Community Engagement Manager, Cody Jang.
A volunteer shift is fast-paced and exciting. Many of our warehouse shifts involve boxing up thousands of pounds of fruits or vegetables. Sometimes our volunteers are tasked with repacking rice into family-friendly one-pound bags. Every volunteer leaves knowing just how much they packed or sorted, and how much of an impact it will make on the community later that week.
You can count Elliott as a believer. “I really enjoyed my volunteer shift in the warehouse, but find it much more rewarding to see the smile on people’s faces when they receive these fresh groceries every week at my pantry.”
If you’d like to donate your time at one of the two Food Bank warehouses, please sign up here.
Mr. David and Rev. Dr. Susanna Singer have been Bay Area residents for 35 years, and advocates for its most vulnerable residents for that same tenure. Both born and raised in London, Susanna recalls that, while her family led a modest life, they always did for others and taught their children to have the same mindset.
“It was an absolute given that we should give back; it’s kind of bred in the bone,” says Susanna. “Our mother in some way was always organized in service outside of the home. It was just normal for her to do that; she has always done it. It was a value we grew up with.”
When they moved to the Bay Area in 1981, David started work in Silicon Valley and Susanna began her training to become a priest.
It was in 2001, around the time of the first recession, that Susanna and David began giving to the Food Bank. Susanna recalls she and David reading an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on food insecurity, and they knew they wanted to join the Food Bank in becoming part of the solution. Their first visit to the pantry and warehouse, where they witnessed the amount of fresh produce distributed, the quality of the food and the efficiency of the regional operation, served to impress them.
“That visit sealed the deal in terms of making it a regular part of our local giving,” says Susanna.
In addition to their annual giving, Susanna and David recently incorporated charitable provisions to the Food Bank into their estate planning, helping to ensure the future of the organization. They have become members of the Food For Life Circle.
“We thought, the Food Bank isn’t going anywhere; there is longevity to it. And the need is going to be there too,” explains Susanna. “It’s really very simple. The Food Bank is the best way we’ve seen to get food to people who need it.”
The battle against hunger in San Francisco and Marin really heated up this month when active-duty members from the U.S. Marines Corps and the U.S. Navy stopped by the warehouse for a volunteer shift as part of the 2017 Fleet Week celebration in the Bay Area.
These men and women in uniform rolled up their sleeves (literally) and helped bag thousands of pounds of frozen corn.
Check out their visit in this video produced by the Marines:
Lance Corporal Christine Carter told KCBS Radio that her job in the Marines centers on combat logistics. Her role at the Food Bank was something a little easier, but still vitally important to the community. Listen to KCBS Radio reporter Jenna Lane’s story:
The visit was all part of the community work carried out by the military during the annual Fleet Week celebration in the Bay Area. This was the fourth year in a row that uniformed volunteers descended on our warehouse for active-duty food packing.
When it was over, the Marines and Navy personnel had managed to bag 2,800 lbs. of corn, just in time for it to be trucked out to the 250 food bank pantries this week and next. Mission Accomplished!
Clickhere for more information about how YOU can volunteer your time at the Food Bank.
After spending much of his adult life leading a Bay Area-based food distribution company, Gary Maxworthy suffered through a tragedy. It was 1994, he was 56 years old, and his first wife died. As the grief slowly began to subside, Gary’s three children came together and suggested a change. They wanted him to do something with his life that would strengthen his community. Gary agreed and soon joined AmeriCorps as a VISTA volunteer. His first and only assignment was with the San Francisco Food Bank. His mission: to think of ways to address the growing problem of hunger.
This was at a time when food banks were distributing mostly boxed and canned non-perishable foods. Gary had an inkling of an idea that not only would increase the amount of food we distributed, but also to provide tons of fresh, healthy produce for our participants. He started reaching out to his old food distribution contacts – growers and packers up and down California – and asked if they would be willing to donate their extra produce to the Food Bank. The initiative was called Farm to Family.
Eventually the idea took off. Now, nearly two decades later Farm to Family serves a statewide network of 43 food banks, providing 180 million pounds of fresh produce every year. Six-hundred thousand Californians are nourished by this food every week. Just last year, Farm to Family delivered its one billionth pound of fresh produce!
While Farm to Family would be enough to make someone a “Food Hero,” Gary went beyond all of that. He has been revered for his innovative spirit, his leadership, and his mentoring of Food Bank employees.
Gary announced his second retirement earlier this year, but before he could ride off into the sunset, he was chosen as the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s 2017 Community Partner Honoree for his incredible legacy and contribution to food banking, not just locally, but around the nation.
Watch Gary’s tribute video above. And listen to Gary, in his own words, in this recent KQED Perspectives piece.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see our Privacy Policy here.
Share