Three years ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Merazka fled with her husband and their two kids to escape the war. They lived near the Russian border, where the sound of bombing rarely let up.
“The main goal was keep our kids safe,” she says. “It’s the reason why we’re here.”
The U.S. took her family in on humanitarian parole, a temporary status extended to Ukrainians fleeing the war. Starting over in a country where you don’t know anyone or speak the language is never easy.
“You start your life with nothing,” Merazka says. And she means it: no money, no stability, no papers to clear them for employment. She and her husband both want to work, but their work permits lapsed months ago, and they’re still waiting on the renewal.
But she always had somewhere to turn for help. Each week, the community food site at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco sends Merazka home with fresh vegetables, meat, and eggs – enough to cook for four. It’s a place, she says, where “you feel safe, and you can get some food for your family.”
That kind of security is everything for her. And, last November, amid even more uncertainty and fear, the Food Bank was still there for Merazka and her family.
The 43-day government shutdown of 2025, the longest in the nation’s history, froze CalFresh for 125,000 people across San Francisco and Marin. Aside from the food bank, Merazka says, CalFresh is “the only way I can eat.”
The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank moved fast, ramping up distributions and getting 800,000 extra meals to households that would have otherwise gone without. Week after week, St. Gregory was there for Merazka, with extra to go around.
So much of what happens next is out of her hands. She doesn’t know whether the paperwork will clear, or what the rules will be a year from now. Through all of it, the Food Bank is the one thing she can count on, and that steadiness lets her look ahead.
“We focus on what we can do and what we can change, and just make a better life for our kids,” she says. “That’s it.”
Hunger on this scale isn’t inevitable. It’s a policy choice. Under H.R. 1, the government enacted the largest cut to food assistance in the program’s history, putting CalFresh out of reach for hundreds of thousands of Californians. The Food Bank can’t replace everything that’s being taken away, but we won’t stop showing up.
Because of your unwavering support, doors like St. Gregory’s stay open for neighbors like Merazka. Your gift this Hunger Action Month means no one in our community faces a November like that one alone.
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