Every week, Lenin heads to Project Open Hand for groceries a rhythm he counts on, and one that surprises him every time. “I love the variety here, and everything is fresh,” he says in Spanish.
When asked what he likes to make, and face lights up.
“I’m Peruvian, so I love cooking Peruvian food,” he says. “All the spices, all the ingredients, they always come together.”
Whatever he won’t eat right away, he turns into juice. The rest becomes dinner.
“I use all of it,” Lenin says.
All of that healthy produce comes from the Food Bank. Project Open Hand is one of our partners, and the fruits and vegetables it stocks each week start on farm lands across state and then made available on our warehouse floor. At its grocery center, neighbors like Lenin choose their own food instead of taking a prepacked box, the same dignity of choice we build into our whole Community Food Network.
A New Start
Lenin came to San Francisco in 2023. “As part of the LGBTQ+ community, I faced stigma where I’m from, so a friend and I decided it was better to move on,” he says. They made the journey north together, and he found a city he hadn’t planned on but has come to love. “There’s a lot more freedom to live here.”
The early days were hard. Starting over in a new country meant piecing together work, housing, and enough to eat, all at once. A local shelter helped him find his footing, and step by step he built something steadier. Three years on, his weeks have a rhythm: a 40-hour work week, volleyball, and cooking.
Money is still tight, but the food he picks up frees up what matters more: the fees for the lawyer handling his asylum case, and with it, the right to keep living openly, the reason he came here in the first place. “Picking up food here has helped me save toward my asylum case,” he says. “The lawyer fees aren’t cheap, and this lets me keep paying for it.”
More Than a Meal
Each week, Lenin picks up alongside a friend who lives in a shelter, and the two cook and eat together, a piece of home rebuilt in a new place. Before he ever needed the help himself, he gave it, volunteering to hand out fruits and vegetables to others.
None of it happens alone. The Food Bank supplies the produce, Project Open Hand the welcome, and Lenin turns both into something that tastes like home.
For a person who left home to live as his full self, that welcome means everything. “I’m very happy with everything here,” he says, “and happy to be part of the community.”
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