October 2008

As Food Prices Rise, Potrero Hill Pantries Feel the Squeeze

By Kerry Fleisher

Forklifts churn through the aisles at San Francisco Food Bank’s 55,000 square foot warehouse on Pennsylvania Avenue, working to fulfill orders from more than 190 food pantries located throughout the City.  The mounds of produce and dried goods are parked adjacent to a gaggle of volunteers, who sort, box, and stack them in little towers labeled “Potrero Hill Resource Center” or “United Council of Human Services”.  In the face of higher prices, the food distributed by the Food Bank provides much-needed financial relief for thousands of low income families who are struggling to make ends meet.

St. Gregory of Nyassa on DeHaro Street hosts San Francisco’s second largest food pantry, serving upwards of 700 people every week.  With milk prices up 30 percent since last year, and bread costing 16 percent more, families are more frequently relying on food pantries for assistance.  St. Gregory’s has experienced a 200 person increase in demand over the past few months, and they aren’t alone.  According to the Food Bank, the number of San Franciscans visiting food pantries has increased by 6,000 this year.  According to Michael Reid, organizer of St. Gregory’s food pantry, the pinch is tangible.   “I really think it’s connected to food prices,” he said.  “The food pantry leaves food worries behind, so people can focus on their landlord, PG&E…the usual.”

Starting as early as 10 a.m. enthused shoppers line up around Jackson Park with their suitcases and shopping bags at the ready to make a dash to St. Gregory’s.  The church’s food pantry opens every Friday from noon to 4 p.m., when volunteers dish out fresh lettuce, zucchini, onions, okra, artichokes, amongst other produce, in addition to rice, beans, bread and other essentials.  With donations from local grocers, there are even more exotic top-of-the-line goods, such as organic corn rye bread, pre-packaged cous-cous and Italian cobb salads, which are meted out first-come, first-served.

St. Gregory’s, unlike other food pantries, doesn’t require shoppers to show anything other than their identification:  no income statement or proof of zip code required.  The open-arms policy is evident in the food pantry signs, which feature Spanish, English and Chinese languages.  The pantry draws crowds from all over the City, particularly Chinatown, and appeals to customers for its broad selection of groceries, buttressed by donations from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.

Many of St. Gregory’s clients depend on the food pantry as an essential in-kind income supplement.  “Everything is necessary,” said Lorenzo Martin-Ventura, a Mission resident, who relies on the food pantry to support a family of four.  “It’s free.  The staff is like brothers and sisters.  The food lasts at least three days.”  According to Chin Shuet the food pantry is an essential component of her household’s economy.  “I need the food for three days to feed three people.  I always come here,” she said.

 Potrero Hill is home to seven food pantries, which are open at various times, some seasonally.  A handful are located at schools – Daniel Webster, Starr King, and International Studies Academy all sponsor pantries – while others are held at community centers, such as Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, Martin House of Hospitality, Edgewood Family, Julian and 15th, and Potrero Hill Resource Center.  San Franciscans can dial 2.1.1 from any phone and enter their area code to hear a list of food pantries in their neighborhoods.

In large measure it’s the Food Bank that keeps the pantries going.  The Bank’s warehouse holds three million pounds at a time, with 31 million pounds of food distributed every year in the form of 55,000 meals a day.  Roughly one-third of the San Francisco Food Bank’s services are dedicated to food pantries, or what the Food Bank calls their “neighborhood grocery network.”  Marguerite Nowak, Advocacy and Education Manager, noted that food pantries are “more dignified if set up like a farmer’s market.”  The choose-as-you-go set-up reduces wasted food – since customers only take what they want – while retaining surplus for other pantries.      

The Food Bank also distributes food to soup kitchens, such as St. Anthony Dining Room, and provides services to childcare centers, drug rehabilitation centers, immigrant food assistance programs, and brown bag programs for seniors.  All told the Food Bank works with 600 nonprofits and after-school programs, as well as close to 200 food pantries, supporting a complex hub of incoming and outgoing food.

The Food Bank’s 70 staff members help coordinate 15 incoming deliveries to the warehouse a day.  They network with Central Valley growers, large Northern California manufacturers, local food drives and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Since 2003 the Food Bank has shifted away from dry goods toward fresh produce, in part because USDA reduced its delivers to California by 60 percent when federal funding fell to just $140 million a year nationwide.

The Food Bank’s staff has embraced the forced focus on fresh food with enthusiasm.  The warehouse is dotted with stacks of carrot cuttings, broccoli, and tidings of plums and oranges that were rejected from grocery stores for not being symmetrical or pretty enough.  Boxes are divided into perishable and no sell-by dates near the front of the warehouse.

Recently the cost of eggs offered to the Food Bank doubled, from .75 cents to $1.50 for a dozen eggs.  And Nowak noted that there are fewer donations this year in a tighter food market.  “We are squeezed too,” she said.  “All of us are feeling squeezed and if you’re on limited budget you can’t reduce rent.  This is the one cost that can be pushed aside.”

Food pantry goers may have noticed a drop in the amount of cereal that’s available, caused by manufacturers selling surplus or defective boxes to discount stores rather than donating.  However, even with a decline in food donations the Food Bank’s cadre of volunteers remains buoyant:  the Food Bank hosts 7,000 volunteers a year, who contribute roughly 64,000 hours.   On a recent weekday afternoon, teenage volunteers from Long Beach’s Grace First Presbyterian Church were packing boxes of plums with athletic vigor.  When asked what inspired their hard work, one boy replied, as he ran to a different food station, “To help the unfortunate. We get a lot done here, as you can see.”

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