News that the Trump Administration has decided to finalize the Public Charge Rule has hit our community hard. This decision essentially forces immigrant families to choose between getting the food they need through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or CalFresh in California) or jeopardizing their chance to remain legally in the U.S. Many of these people will choose to suffer without food. It’s objectionable that we as a country offer benefits like SNAP only to have our own government discourage hard working, well-meaning people from using them.
Our Executive Director Paul Ash spoke about policies that harm our immigrant communities with KTVU Fox 2 News Anchor Claudine Wong on set – airing on Sunday morning, 8/18/19.
News that the Trump Administration had decided to finalize the Public Charge Rule has hit our community hard. This decision essentially forces immigrant families to choose between getting the food they need through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or CalFresh in California) or jeopardizing their chance to remain legally in the U.S. Many of these people will choose to suffer without food. It’s objectionable that we as a country offer benefits like SNAP only to have our own government discourage hard working, well-meaning people from using them.
Rachel Bolden-Kramer grew up in San Francisco, the single child of working-class parents, was raised in the Upper Haight in the 1980s and 90s. Her dad, who has roots in the American South, was a driver; her Jewish mom worked for the phone company. Today, she is literally a poster child for San Francisco, as she is featured as one of 15 portraits on permanent display at the Ferry Building as part of CUESA’s Food Change public art mural installation that celebrates farmers, advocates, and residents who are working to improve the region’s food systems.
San Francisco emergency officials gathered more than 100 private and nonprofits – including the Food Bank – to urge advanced planning in the event of a Pacific Gas & Electric “fire safety power outage”.
Teenage siblings from Marin continue their effort to support the Food Bank by gathering fruit donations from neighbors. Check out more on the story from the The Marin IJ’s Matthew Pera…
The Trump Administration has not been afraid to use proposed rule changes, and other methods, to upend the SNAP program. Some of those efforts, and our response to them, have been covered by various local news agencies including:
A sanctuary with no judgment — that’s what Tania Estrada, the community programs director at the Women’s Building, calls their food pantry, established through a partnership with the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s immigrant food assistance program.
Across the U.S., millions of people face penetrating physical, mental and emotional diminishment caused by systemic hunger. But why are people waging an existential battle with hunger in the richest and among the most agriculturally productivecountries in the world?
The causes and correlations are complex and varied, of course, but the underlying issue is food insecurity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as “a lack of of consistent access to food for an active, healthy life.” As such, food insecurity reaches beyond the personal discomfort of hunger and encompasses the spectrum of sociological, economic, and political inputs that lead a daily hunt or want of food.
Imbibe Magazine launched Negroni Week in 2013 as a celebration of one of the world’s great cocktails and an effort to raise money for charities around the world, including ours!
Since 2013, Negroni Week has grown from about 120 participating venues to almost 10,000 venues around the world, and to date, they have collectively raised about $2 million for charitable causes.
Check out some of the great coverage of Negroni Week 2019
POCKETS OF POVERTY REVEAL WIDESPREAD FOOD INSECURITY HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT IN LAND OF PLENTY
This is a region of farm-fresh abundance and dining excellence. It’s also a place of scarcity for people like fixed-income seniors living in subsidized housing in Tiburon. Or the two-income Sausalito couple who hit hard times when the husband, coping with an expensive, chronic health condition, lost his business. Or students in Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties who struggle to pay the cost of going to college while keeping up with classwork. Or young immigrant families in San Rafael’s Canal District, whose adults often hold down multiple jobs. Or the soon-to-graduate single mom on a limited budget living in low-income housing in Marin City. Or the motley crew of West Marin individualists with limited financial resources in San Geronimo. Or farm laborers in Napa. Or residents displaced by fire or flood in Sonoma. There is need in every nook and cranny here.
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