Unlike many programs that rely on canned goods and processed foods, The Food Pantry gives away mostly fresh fruits and vegetables to the families who come to us for groceries. Thanks to the San Francisco Food Bank and its network of local farmers, we distribute literally tons of delicious fresh produce every single week at the food pantry.

This fall and winter, we’re seeing a lot of apples and pears––including delicious, crunchy Asian pears, Bartletts, and Boscs. Cool-weather greens are coming in: rainbow and Swiss chard, kale, collards, turnip greens and beet greens….some of it grown right here in San Francisco backyards by our volunteer urban farmers! We have beautiful heads of lettuce, and bunches of fresh beets. And there’s an amazing variety of squash: butternut, Kabocha, spaghetti squash, acorn squash and more.

Hundreds of hungry families get this kind of fresh, healthy food every week. It’s wonderful to see a kid walking out eating a pear, or a mother’s cart filled to overflowing with greens. We’re grateful for the farmers who make this abundance possible, and to everyone at the Food Bank who sorts, packs and delivers those pallets every week.

In November 2009, The Food Pantry celebrated our ninth anniversary at St. Gregory’s with cake, singing, and a blessing in English, Spanish, and Chinese. And we honored our volunteers who gave extraordinary amounts of time, creativity and thought in a period of great transition.

Since the beginning of the year, our numbers have been going up at The Food Pantry, with lines stretching around blocks. The people who come to us are often newly unemployed, or facing cutbacks at their jobs. Others are struggling to stay in their houses or rental apartments, and some families have lost their homes. We know there are more people out there who need food, and we want to be able to reach them.

This fall The Food Pantry grappled with how to continue serving the growing numbers of people, as many as 900 a week, coming for groceries. The influx was stretching our budget––in August we spent over $1000 each week on food–– and our capacity to handle the crowds in the space. During a month of discussions with our board and volunteers, we developed a plan so that we could continue to serve people fairly and with dignity.

We’ve registered 1200 people, assigning them alternate weeks to come to The Food Pantry. This means that each individual can only get groceries every other week, and, for the first time in nine years, we can’t accept any new visitors.

To make this work required new systems – a special spreadsheet to keep track of visitors, a rolling schedule so that nobody had to wait in line, and flyers in several languages. Mostly, it required personal communication with the people we serve, to explain and answer questions and reassure the families who’ve come to depend on us.

Volunteer Winston Wu was key to this effort. Winston worked at the pantry every week for nearly a year while he was unemployed, greeting and managing the line of pantry visitors out front, using his impressive language skills in five different Chinese dialects. Winston wrote us to announce his “leave of absence” with regrets.

“I have accepted an assignment at a little company called Google,” he wrote. “Serving at the Food Pantry has taught me teamwork, integrity and strong respect for people. Most of all, it taught me compassion, humbleness and to serve with a thankful heart. The sum of all the experience has helped transform me as a person. People say big fellows don’t shed tears, but I have to admit I shed a few tears the past several nights thinking just how much I will miss all of you, and thinking what life will be like minus all the hysteria I encounter every Friday. Thank you for your confidence in me, and for making my first volunteer experience something I will always remember.”

As many as sixty volunteers run The Food Pantry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Most are people who came to get food and stayed to help out; some are neighbors, and some are first-time visitors. Every one of them has a story, and together they create a living, growing community. This issue’s interview is with volunteer Angela Dow.

Two years ago, I saw a picture of The Food Pantry on Craigslist, and it said volunteers could just show up. I got to the church early and saw this woman, Nirmala, standing inside a giant bread bin, unloading loaves. I couldn’t even see all of her, but she called out, “Come on in, and give me a hand!”

I came here from Hong Kong when I was twelve. I didn’t know my mother; I was raised by my grandmother and nannies. My grandmother was a Christian, and she always said you have to help people who have less than you, especially the elderly. Old people aren’t useless and ugly, she taught us, you need to learn to do right and respect them.

I worked at the phone company here for 27 years. And when I retired I wanted to find some way to give back the blessings I’ve received. My husband is good to me, we have property, we have a surplus. So I did tutoring with newcomer kids, I tried to help in a hospital, I helped renters with legal problems. But The Food Pantry is a place where I learn so much.

One holiday, The Food Pantry had a dinner for the volunteers, and Sara just said, “If people need food, that’s what we’re here for.” That really made me think. I realized I can’t pick and choose who I want to help. People didn’t ask to be poor. They didn’t ask to be sick. Sure, there are some cheaters and liars, and I get angry about it, but overall people are good. A few of the volunteers have [criminal] records, but when we work together they’re gentlemen. They work as hard as me. Who am I to judge? I learn to respect everyone: these two men got married and we blessed them at the pantry. Now I think, if somebody finds a person who makes them happy, that’s God’s wish for them: who am I to judge? Working together you see that all people have something to offer.

So I arrange my schedule around The Food Pantry. On Fridays I’m there to do whatever needs doing. During the week I work on getting donations for the pantry. I went to a young friend of my nephew’s who runs a big Italian bakery, and asked him to help us. He laughed and said, “OK, auntie,” and let me pick the bread up twice a week in my car. A lot of people only worry about making money, but he knew that everybody has to give something. Because at the end of the day, really, it’s a big accomplishment what we do. And it takes all of us.