Day 4: SF/Marin Food Bank

We started off the day working with the SF/Marin Food Bank at their popup located in North Beach. We began by preparing bags to be filled with groceries. After having prepared all of the bags, we, along with other volunteers, formed a line to fill grocery bags with different types of groceries, such as onions, carrots and peanut butter. As we did this, we had to check the food for quality, for instance, making sure that we were not including rotting food in the grocery bags. After working at the popup for a few hours, we made our way over to Washington Square Park and then split up into different groups from there to grab lunch from different places. We ate lunch all together at the park, then got some gelato (one flavor of which was a very interesting raspberry and olive oil combination…). From there, we split into two teams to start our scavenger hunt, which took us all over North Beach and Chinatown to find the answers to different questions based off of different clues.

While working at the Food Bank Popup we learned that the SF Marin Food Bank serves thousands and thousands of families each week, and overall serves about 25% of families in San Francisco. I had no idea that this many people in San Francisco depend on food banks, and it prompted me to think further about how unjust and broken our systems must be if there are this many people who can not afford basic necessities to live. Throughout the week, we have had a lot of conversations about how many people in our city and everywhere have to chose between paying for food or for a place to live, and I was reminded of this when learning about how many people rely on the SF/Marin Food Bank. We also discussed how people of different races and ages can disproportionately face barriers keeping them from being able to afford life necessities. For instance, we discussed how many people at the food bank were people who had worked all of their lives only to have to rely on a food bank after retiring due to increases in the cost of living. Overall, it was such an important experience and opportunity to learn so much and do some really important service.
⁃Anhai