It’s a rainy, cold Friday in San Francisco, and we’re winding up the last food pantry of the year (we’re closed for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and reopen January 7, 2011.) We’ve given away butternut squash, raisin scones, oranges, apples, potatoes, onions, cabbage, rice, beans, cereal, sardines, frozen vegetarian lasagna, bread, and more to about 500 people, and have another hour to go. Thanks as always to our amazing crew of volunteers, especially Michael, Angela, Nirmala and everyone at the front table.

Friday afternoon

If you’re a food pantry anywhere in the United States (or interested in starting a food pantry) and you need to find a source of fresh produce….
If you’re a gardener anywhere in the United States or have backyard fruit trees, and are interested in giving fresh food to hungry people….
check out this nation-wide site: Ample Harvest
…it’s a free, nation-wide network linking food pantries and gardeners. Use it like Google: just type in where you are, what you need, or what you have to offer.

Thanks to everyone who helped make The Food Pantry’s 10th anniversary party so special! We especially thank Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz, who cooked and served a delicious spread (the grilled octopus and the chamomile tres leches cake were standouts!) To Speakeasy and Social Brew, who donated local beer (love the porter); to Deb Tullman who showed her film about The Food Pantry (see it on this site) and Clark Cole, who rocked the place with live accordion music; to DJ Bertie Pearsons and MC Paul Fromberg; to Michael Reid, above and beyone; and to all our amazing volunteers, donors, friends and colleagues: we are so grateful.

We’re grateful for all the people who’ve made The Food Pantry possible, week after week and year after year. Let us give thanks!

Tricia McCarthy, a board member of The Food Pantry, writes here about her experiences trying to live on the food stamp allotment of $4 a day. “More oatmeal…at this point I still have a headache, my stomach feels empty and I’m hoping to fall asleep early so I can stop thinking about food and worrying what I’m going to eat for the next 4 days…”

From October 12-24, diners at COMMONWEALTH, the fantastic new restaurant in the Mission from Chef Jason Fox and Anthony Myint of Mission Street Food, will be helping support The Food Pantry. Anthony, who’s been a generous supporter of The Food Pantry and dozens of other community nonprofits through his earlier venture, Mission Street Food, is giving a portion of the proceeds from every tasting menu to us during this period, so please make your reservation now.
The food is incredible, and the idea of a restaurant that shares its profits with the community is so exciting. The money you spend on dinner will help us buy groceries for hungry families. Please support COMMONWEALTH and The Food Pantry…and tell your friends!

COMMONWEALTH 2224 Mission St., San Francisco · 415-355-1500

dinner for the people

This November, The Food Pantry will celebrate its tenth anniversary. We’re planning a party in San Francisco on November 5th, and welcome everyone to come at noon for a blessing.
• If you’re a current or former volunteer, donor, or colleague of ours, please contact sara@thefoodpantry.org so we can honor you at our volunteer event that evening.
• Please consider making a special gift in honor of this anniversary! donate here. We appreciate your support.

Thank you!

It’s summer at The Food Pantry…which, because we’re in San Francisco, means it’s often cold and foggy. But our faithful volunteers keep showing up– as do more families, since kids are out of school and don’t get school lunches.
Luckily, it’s been a wonderful season for fruit– we’ve had literally tons of fresh Bing cherries and strawberries to give away, and now the nectarines and plums are coming in. Looking forward to tomatoes!

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On Saturday February 6, at 8AM, the Food Pantry’s own operations director, Board member, and longtime super-volunteer Michael Reid will be interviewed on KPIX CH 5 (San Francisco.) Don’t miss him!
….and look for Micahel again on the 11th of February in Union Square, where he and Sara Miles will be honored for their work with The Food Pantry at the Heroes & Hearts benefit for San Francisco General Hospital.

It’s been raining like crazy for most of January, and at The Food Pantry we try to keep things moving quickly so nobody has to get soaked waiting in line. Thanks to our more than fifty regular volunteers, we can usually unload and set up food for 600 people in just a couple of hours.
The winter citrus is coming in nicely, with wonderful oranges and some lemons. We’re also firmly in carrot-potato-cabbage season, and last week we had some beautiful beets. Two visitors from Korea who were lending a hand were amazed– they’d never seen this vegetable before. Another volunteer who regularly brings in homemade beet juice to share gave them some, to everyone’s delight. Pink stained lips all around!