potrero view

July 2009

Local Nonprofits Take Innovative Steps to Survive

By Sarah Harper

In the current economy, making a profit is at the forefront of many people’s minds.  But in the nonprofit world success these days is measured by simple survival.  For three Potrero Hill-based nonprofits – San Francisco Food Bank (SFFB), Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (Nabe), and SaveNature.Org – the recession has presented challenges as well as opportunities for growth.   

SFFB distributes roughly 30 million pounds of food a year to 133,000 people through more than 600 community food programs.  SFFB obtains its supplies primarily though donations, including food drives, corporate sponsorship, and  the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  SFFB also accepts donations from nationwide manufacturers and California growers, such as General Mills, Kraft Foods, and Central Valley farmers, paying only shipping costs.  SFFB distributes these supplies to partner organizations, including neighborhood-, school- and church-based food pantries, which in turn provide groceries to their patrons at no cost.  

The Great Recession has presented unique challenges to SFFB.  Associate Director of Policy and Media Renske van Staveren notes that this economic downturn seems to be broader-based and harder-hitting than previous ones.  San Francisco’s unemployment rate has jumped 50 percent since last year, to eight percent, while at the same time the City has cut funding for human services.  For example, Bernal Dwellings, a public housing complex that hosts a weekly pantry, recently lost funding when the San Francisco Department of Public Health cut violence prevention programs.  At the same time, the San Francisco Department of Parks and Recreation, which hosts senior food distribution and summer lunch sites, has reduced its staff and facility hours.  In the face of hard times the Sierra Madre and Klimm pantries, located in the Tenderloin, and the Samoan Assembly of God pantry, in the Outer Mission, have closed.  Moreover, demand for free food has increased by 24 percent, and donations to the SFFB – particularly those from large food packaging companies and other retailers – have decreased.

SFFB is compensating for diminished packaged food donations by distributing more produce – now up to half its supplies.  Despite the challenges, the Food Bank wants to increase its weekly produce distribution by 20,000 pounds for the next nine months, and its total food distribution to more than 33 million pounds, a goal, Van Staveren noted, that the nonprofit is on track to meet.  To better serve clientele throughout the City, SFFB hopes to replace food pantries that have closed by opening nineteen new, easily-accessible locations in the Bayview, Outer Mission, Sunset, Richmond and other neighborhoods.  The Food Bank’s newly-launched marketing campaigns, including advertising through Monster.com and faith-based organizations, are helping increase awareness of its services.  The nonprofit is also working to remove any perceived stigma associated with accepting food through charity, which is particularly crucial for first-time food pantry clients.  For example, SFFB-supported pantries are typically arranged farmer’s market style to normalize patrons’ shopping experience.    

SFFB has increased its volunteer force by a staggering 45 percent this year.  Van Staveren noted that volunteers from all walks of life – school groups, senior citizens, members of  faith-based organizations, and for-profit companies – are donating their time.  This assistance has helped the Food Bank bolster its 65-member staff, and keep pace with growth in demand.  In the face of a widespread and deep-set recession, it appears that “people are increasingly aware that food is a right”, Van Staveren said.  She hopes this awareness, coupled with education on food-related advocacy and policy, will motivate more Americans to take action against hunger.

The Nabe is a multi-purpose community center that serves clients of all ages, with an emphasis on youth and education.  It hosts a range of services, including educational programs and food pantries.  According to Executive Director Edward Hatter, last year the nonprofit was doing fairly well: donations were reasonable, government funding was stable, and key programs were being supported.  But this year things changed.  Like other distribution centers, the food pantries are strained beyond capacity, job-seekers looking for employment through the Nabe’s workforce placement program are less often successful, and, the City has cut funding for substance abuse and criminal rehabilitation programs.

To face these challenges, the Nabe is thinking “outside the box.”  The nonprofit has partnered with the Culinary Academy and the SFFB to support its four-times-a-week dinner for in-need youth.  To accommodate squeezed public sector budgets, the Nabe is requesting less funds for its rehabilitative programs from the City.  To reduce its dependence on government funding, the nonprofit is relying more heavily on volunteers, and seeking to increase community donations and bolster extra-organizational partnerships.  Hatter emphasized that the Nabe has the expertise to handle the challenges, having weathered similar shakeups in the past. “They seem to come in ten-year cycles,” he observed.  

SaveNature.Org, formerly The Center for Ecosystem Survival, helps preserve ecosystems and biological diversity worldwide.  Since 1988, the nonprofit has, in collaboration with other organizations, helped protect roughly 11 million acres of rainforests and coral reefs.  Many of SaveNature.Org’s programs are based on small donations; individuals can purchase an acre of rainforest or coral reef or, by donating as little as 25 cents to a Conservation Parking Meter, save up to 90 square feet of rainforest.

In light of the global recession, SaveNature’s Director Norm Gershenz is seeking new funding sources while maintaining the organization’s simple goal: to motivate every individual to protect nature.  To do so, according to Gershenz, his organization must “add more colors to our conservation pallet.”  Like Hatter, Gershenz is thinking outside the box.  He anticipates launching new projects designed to capture the attention of a wider audience.  The sale of hand-crafted bee boxes will enable purchasers to house solitary bees in their backyards; the “Edible Education” outreach program will emphasize the impact of participants’ food choices on nature.  

SaveNature’s most successful educational program, the Insect Discovery Lab, currently presents more than 800 programs annually.  But Gershenz believes presenting 1,000 programs in 2009 is not out of the question. Gershenz is also monitoring the success of a new program that allows donors to contribute $1,000 for the right to name one of fifty newly-discovered wasp species in Costa Rica in exchange for habitat protection assurance.

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