Before March 2020, the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank typically served more than 200,000 people and distributed nearly 50 million pounds of food every year. The Food Bank relies on a huge network of nonprofit partners to help them distribute that food across San Francisco and Marin. They team up with over 400 agencies and scores of pantry volunteers to get healthy food into the hands of our neighbors in need.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our neighbors stepped into a pantry line for the first time. There were eight times as many visits to their Food Locator site in April 2020 compared to a typical pre-pandemic month. Their Food Locator is an online tool that helps people find food assistance in San Francisco and Marin. It helps individuals locate weekly free groceries, monthly food boxes for seniors, one-time emergency food, or help them enroll in CalFresh (food stamps).

Hunger is an ongoing problem in the community that has only worsened during the pandemic. The Food Bank uses grant funding provided by the Maximus Foundation to continue expanding its efforts to address our community’s needs. During the pandemic, they:

• established and opened 29 emergency Pop-up Pantries, each serving 300 to 1,100 households a week
• more than tripled the number of seniors and people with disabilities receiving home-delivered food
• equipped other food pantries with additional supplies, so they remained open
• distributed a record-breaking 7.8 million pounds in October 2020, compared to their approximately 4.2 million pounds of food per month pre-COVID-19

Benjamin Coss, Senior Vice President of Maximus Health Services, shared, “The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank has done a wonderful job during the pandemic to be nimble in their ability to meet the surge of need across the Bay Area. Their impressive operation, infrastructure, and support model have really stepped up in these difficult times to help so many Californians. We are so proud to be a partner with San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and thank them dearly for all their efforts throughout the pandemic.”

Learn more about their impact and how you can get involved at sfmfoodbank.org