For Veronica, finding help has often meant navigating a maze of complicated systems without much support to guide her through.
When her daughter was diagnosed with cancer in 2021, those challenges deepened. After her daughter’s remission in 2023, the family left the hospital without work or housing. Soon after, Veronica was diagnosed with breast cancer. The gaps in the safety net became even clearer when even putting food on the table was no longer certain.
“I tried applying for CalFresh and was told my household income was too high, even though my husband is underemployed and I’m unemployed,” she said.
With so many needs and so few options, it was hard to know where to turn.
But then Veronica and her family got connected to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s pantry at La Raza Community Resource Center, now known as Mercado El Colibrí. It became a steady source of stability for her family, a place where they could count on fresh groceries and friendly faces during difficult times.
“My daughter loves fruit — we almost always get lots of fruits and vegetables,” she said. “With the food I get from El Colibrí, I make her pan con pollo, a traditional dish from El Salvador.”
El Colibrí is one of the Food Bank’s new Community Markets, created with trusted partners like La Raza to make access to nutritious food easier and more dignified ,and facilitate connections to vital social services. This partnership helps ensure families like Veronica’s can find healthy food and a welcoming space whenever they need it most.
“I like being here,” she said. “It helps me socialize, make friends, and relax.”
Where Food and Connection Meet
Community Markets are reimagining what it means to access food with dignity. These welcoming, grocery store–style spaces make it easier for people to get the food they want and need, when it works for them. Open multiple days each week with flexible hours, each market offers fresh produce, groceries, and culturally relevant foods. Importantly, these community-centered environments couple access to healthy food with direct connections and referrals to vital immigration and social services.
Lucia Ruiz, Senior Program Manager at the Food Bank, said Community Markets mark an important shift in how the Food Bank approaches ending hunger. “The model is more flexible and participant-centered,” she said. “It provides dignity and convenience by offering food alongside service navigation and referrals. When we talk about addressing the root causes of hunger, we have to think about how to lift people out of poverty. Combining food access with supportive resources helps make that possible.”
Eight Community Markets are planned to open over the next year, some operated by the Food Bank and the majority operated directly by our community partners. The first partner-led Community Market to open is La Raza’s El Colibrí in the Mission District. To mark its official expansion to multiple days of service — increasing its capacity to serve more families — and the market’s integration of critical services directly available for participants, La Raza held a ribbon cutting ceremony to welcome all to Mercado El Colibrí.
“With our new community market, we plan to serve up to 1,000 families weekly to provide healthy food and help them get the vital wraparound services they need, and all in one place” said La Raza Community Resource Center Executive Director Gabriel Medina. “Once our food seekers are here, not only are they given more choice, all of our food seekers can connect to services like immigration, both affirmative and defensive, citizenship naturalization, women’s support groups, diaper bank, case management. It’s a concept our families sorely need more of.”
The event included remarks from community members and the Food Bank. “We are grateful to partner with La Raza Community Resource Center,” said Noriko Lim-Tepper, Chief Officer for Strategic Partnerships, Advocacy & Voice. “We celebrate La Raza’s Mercado El Colibrí as not only a resource providing access to healthy food but a center for vital services for our community.”
Essential to the vital resources available at Mercado El Colibrí is the concept of community, which is a foundation for Veronica. What began as a source of help during an especially dark time has become a place of belonging and where she now volunteers every week, welcoming others with the same warmth she found there.
“When you are treated with respect, you feel welcomed,” she said. “Everyone deserves that.”
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