Waiter.com Building a Better Bay Area: SF-Marin Food Bank
Posted by Amelia K. on Tuesday, November 18th, 2014 with 6 Comments
At Waiter.com, we’re all about community. We believe that we’re all in this together, and we want to work to make the world a better place. We know that the best way to get people to sit down together is with the help of delicious food, and that happens to be our speciality. With that in mind, we’re sitting down with some of the region’s best organizations, who are working each day to help those in need and make our communities and the world better. We’re sharing their stories, as well as information on what you can do to help, in our Building a Better Bay Area series. Today we’re featuring the SF-Marin Food Bank.
While many of us don’t realize it, the extent of ‘going without’ is pretty extensive within the San Francisco and Marin area. In just this year alone, SF-Marin Food Bank has served 225,000 people and delivered nearly 46 million pounds of food throughout the San Francisco area. They distribute 107,000 meals worth of food every single day, and serve 30,000 families each week. With these staggering numbers, it’s easy to see what a huge role SF-Marin Food Bank takes on in our community – and how many people benefit from their services every day.
We dined with the SF-Marin Food Bank’s Operations team. They taught us so much about the need for their services in the Bay area.
Because the Bay Area is such an expensive place to live, the issues with hunger are intensified. Many jobs just don’t offer enough income for families to make ends meet – and since food costs are one of the most expensive pieces of a family’s budget, it’s often the first budget item to get axed.
But the SF-Marin Food Bank doesn’t just focus on getting meals to families in need – they are dedicated to bringing a healthier way of living to the individuals benefiting from their services. With corporate partnerships and volunteer food drives being held across the Bay Area, 60% of the 47 million pounds of food they distribute annually is fresh fruits and veggies. The rest is a mixture of healthy grains, lean protein, and pantry essentials. The SF-Marin Food Bank focuses on families thrive by providing them with convenient access to healthy and nutritious foods.
By hosting food pantries in the same style as a farmer’s market, the SF-Marin Food Bank allows community members to choose their own ingredients in a manner that’s different than your traditional food bank. They place enormous value on helping individuals maintain their dignity while obtaining food assistance. Community members can receive food assistance just by saying they need help. The Food Bank doesn’t share their information with anyone, so their privacy is always respected. The SF-Marin Food Bank also provides fresh, healthy snacks to 10,000 children in local classrooms every single day. Essentially, their goal goes beyond just bringing pre-packed foods to those in need – they want to end hunger by offering access to healthy foods and helping parents teach good nutritional habits at a young age.
A small view of their warehouse – you can see what a huge operation they run!
Building a Vision
To make their vision possible, the SF-Marin Food Bank relies on the work of nearly 25,000 volunteers on an annual basis. These volunteers come as individuals or as part of corporate and community groups; they prepare food for distribution to 240 food pantry locations, as well as a range of grocery and hot meal programs. These volunteers do the work of 70 full time staff members – and they are a vital part of what makes this organization so successful. Without their help, the SF-Marin Food Bank simply wouldn’t be able to meet such a high level of demand.
The City of San Francisco has committed to the goal of ending hunger in the City by 2020. To support this goal, the SF-Marin Food Bank works not only to help those in need access healthy food, but to help make systematic change in our community. They advocate for policy changes needed at a legislative level, have an outreach team that helps community members access state and government programs that can help during tough times, and they offer on-site nutrition programming at their pantries to help individuals learn how to use the ingredients they select for wholesome and tasty meals.
Learn how you can help support the goals of the SF-Marin Food Bank and help make a difference in the community.
You Can Help
The SF-Marin food Bank can’t do all of this without our help. They rely on community members to volunteer and also to donate. Each dollar donated equals three meals and many employers offer gift matching, which helps you to leverage your own donation to do more. Consider learning more about volunteering opportunities or giving to support their mission. Together, we can make a big difference in the lives of Bay Area residents in need.
At Waiter.com, we want to know about the organizations that our making our community a stronger place. If you know a Bay Area organization that deserves our thanks and recognition, please use our contact form below. We’d love to hear about it!
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It’s heartwarming to know that there is still caring people in the world. I think its great that they offer healthy food as a way a maintaining a healthier lifestyle while providing assistance to those in need.
We agree wholeheartedly – they are a great organization.
While there is nobility in providing these services, and all of the large numbers of data are supplied, I must wonder, what would those numbers really look like if people knew there was no help? That they had to to it on their own. Food for thought.
Thanks for bringing that up, Turk!
I love the fact that this food bank focuses not only on making sure needy families have something to eat, but also making sure they get health nutrition. Low income doesn’t have to mean poor food quality.
Thanks, Lindsay! We were really impressed as well.