It’s early Friday morning, and the weather is gray. Wind and fog roll off the San Francisco Bay and settle over the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s warehouse in San Rafael. But inside, the well-oiled machine of regular volunteers — packing, sorting, and distributing produce and groceries for neighbors in need, laughing and joking to upbeat music — radiates warmth. This team has been working together since the early days of COVID, showing up week after week to help those who need it. A crucial member of the team is Angelo Siracusa, known for his hard work and friendly, jovial spirit.
Angelo greets everyone by name, shares hugs and jokes, lifts heavy boxes of cauliflower over his head, and slices open cartons of potatoes with ease. You wouldn’t guess it, but he recently turned 95. His fellow volunteers brought him cake and the hat he’s wearing today, which reads, “Vintage 1930.”
“Everybody here knows Angelo,” says Randy Rollman, Senior Warehouse Volunteer Coordinator for the Food Bank. “He drives himself here three times a week, not just Friday. He comes on Tuesdays and works in our repack room, packaging large quantities of grain or pasta into small, family-sized packages. On Thursday, he’s one of my specialized meat crew. We usually go through about 3,000 pounds of donated meat that we’ve accumulated over the course of the week. Angelo’s integral to that part of the crew.”
Today, that crew is packing around 574 bags filled with fresh produce and groceries, about 25 to 30 pounds each. Later, 30 volunteer drivers will each take 20 bags and deliver them to seniors across Marin.
“It’s my favorite day of the week,” Angelo says, “because the food goes to the people.”
He’s a firm believer in giving back to the people around him. He also believes in staying active, both mentally and physically.
“I would be going crazy if I weren’t doing stuff like this,” he says. “A lot of people get very, very lonely when they retire. So, this is one way to keep active and to keep happy.”
Angelo was born in San Francisco, the child of Italian immigrants. His family moved to San Mateo County when he was two, and in 1970, he settled in Marin, where he’s lived ever since. He now lives in Larkspur.
“This is truly home,” he says.
Still, he knows that many people don’t associate Marin with struggling to make ends meet.
“A lot of people think of poverty as something that exists somewhere else, not in Marin” Angelo says. “I think people understand poverty in theory, but they don’t see it directly, so they don’t feel like they need to engage… poverty is [actually] shaping life all around us.”
And because this is home, and because he knows the need is real, he wanted to help.
“I always wanted to volunteer, but I just didn’t find the right fit for me,” Angelo says.
When he first tried signing up for a shift, every spot was full. But he didn’t give up.
“One day, I decided to just come down and work,” he recalls. He immediately felt at home. “I said, ‘Well, I can do this all the time,’” he laughed, “and that made it easy.”
It also helped that he clicked with the people around him and trusted the way things were run. “We’ve got a great crew here,” he says. “And Randy does a great job. I’ve been involved in a lot of nonprofits, but [the Food Bank] is very well run.”
In addition to his time, Angelo makes sure to donate each year.
“This is great mission,” he says. “A lot of people can’t afford to buy food, and this gives them a way to get fed. And the food here is good. Like so many charitable organizations, we’re serving the underserved and the poor. And especially with what’s going on now in the country… there’s going to be a lot of abandoning of those people.”
He worries about the future and what the brutal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will mean for the people who rely on it. But he hopes it pushes his neighbors to act.
“If we have, we need to share,” he continues. “It doesn’t have to mean suffering or sacrifice. Just little things that can make a big difference. I think more people understand the crisis we’re in, and that brings them out.”
Angelo is grateful for the opportunity to keep active, stay connected, and give back to the place he calls home. And here at the Food Bank, we’re grateful to have him.
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