April 2008Food Pantry Launched At International Studies AcademyBy Kerry FleisherLast month International Studies Academy (ISA), located on De Haro Street, launched San Francisco’s first peer-to-peer food pantry. The program, which is co-sponsored by The Food Pantry and the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (Nabe), puts students in charge of distributing nutritious groceries to roughly 80 of their peers. Sara Miles, The Food Pantry’s director and founder, said that the goal of the ISA program is to provide food to needy students once or twice a month. As with the popular food pantry at St. Gregory’s of Nyssa Episcopal Church across the street, which is also run by The Food Pantry, the San Francisco Food Bank provides groceries at pennies a pound. Edward Hatter, the Nabe’s Director and co-founder of the unique program, said he hopes that the pantry will increase access to food, encourage students to take control of their diets, and educate participants on how to shop for a well-rounded meal. “I noticed students would come to the Nabe after school without eating lunch or breakfast. They were starving. That’s where the idea for this program came from,” he said. In the future, The Food Pantry and the Nabe plan to bring in students and faculty from the nearby California Culinary Academy to teach youth-friendly cooking classes. The program hopes to enlist 10 student volunteers to organize groceries during the school’s last period, and distribute them to their peers at the end of the day. The pantry’s first day drummed up such enthusiasm that a traffic jam converged outside the campus, as students called their parents to pick up their food. The second food exchange proved a similar success, with all but five of the 1300 pounds provided by the Food Bank distributd to approximately 52 students.
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