Volunteering at the SF-Marin Food Bank

Several months ago, I attended a panel on food insecurity in the Bay Area. Panelists ranged from owners of non-profits to elected officials to food bank representatives. It was completely eye opening for me, because while I consider myself very plugged into the food scene in San Francisco - I had no idea how out of touch I was with the thousands of people in the region who struggle with food insecurity every day. It’s no exaggeration that I felt like my eyes had been opened to a whole different side to my city. They say 1 in 4 SF residents is unable to afford all of the food they need.

I was particularly inspired by Teri Olle who is the Director of Advocacy at the SF-Marin Food Bank, and she spoke about different ways to get involved. One of the easiest ways to get your foot in the door to lending a hand is by volunteering at the SF-Marin Food Bank in the Dogpatch area of SF. So when I was funemployed and had some free time, I signed myself up!

The SF-Marin Food Bank is a REMARKABLE operation and boy are they efficient with their logistics. I was just so impressed! The only way I can best describe the food bank is like a Costco distribution center. It’s a huge warehouse where food arrives from all sources - donations, farms, overfill from grocery stores - where it is packaged and then distributed to other places (like YMCAs or pantries), where people actually go to pick up the food. It’s a massive operation and everything is so incredibly organized, down to how they utilize volunteers.

You volunteer in 3-hour blocks, and you sign up online to volunteer. Once again - makes it so easy, simple, and efficient. I went on a random Thursday, and there were a couple of individuals like me there, but also large groups from companies in the city who were doing a day of service.

Our task for the day? Weighing and packaging rice. Hairnets were a bonus :).

I had a nice time, and they played great music while we did these more mindless tasks! I made mental plans to volunteer again there soon.

Lucky for me, that opportunity was right around the corner. Right when I started my new job, I was given two dates that I could volunteer as a group with my colleagues. Individual (loner) volunteer no longer! On a Saturday, I returned back to the food bank and we were given a new task as a group - tomato bagging!

I definitely had a lot more fun volunteering when I went with a group of people I knew!

There really seemed to be a never ending amount of tomatoes to be bagged, but I had great company and good music to listen to the entire time. I think all of the volunteers only got through like half of the crates of cherry tomatoes! I can’t remember the exact number, but we bagged several hundred pounds of these babies.

I’m definitely going to find myself volunteering at the Food Bank again, whether it be organized with a group or convincing Nate to check it out with me. It’s a enjoyable way to spend a few hours, and a very low level of effort/minimal commitment way to give back to the community. If you’re SF local, highly recommend checking it out!

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