Funding for food systems for seniors and other people with disabilities in San Francisco is running out, potentially putting the health of thousands of people at risk.
Some vendors are cutting back on their expenses as more people line up for loose food and bags of groceries.
“We’ve noticed this line growing and growing and growing,” said Humberto Pinon, senior fitness educator and communications coordinator for the Curry Senior Center.
The pandemic prompted governments to invest money in nutrition systems that offered loose food, largely to older people; they no longer had to threaten to get irritated in crowded retail establishments or deal with skyrocketing food prices. But as the emergency measures ended, subsidies have dwindled, and recent local budget cuts to San Francisco service providers have further threatened food systems.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter for local journalism on issues affecting populations.
Nonprofits are struggling to fill their budget holes and sustain them in an environment where personal funders are also pulling out.
“We just want to make up the difference by raising more and more money,” said Winnie Yu, chief systems and compliance officer for Self-Help for the Elderly, which offers bulk food and many other things like housing, case management and hospice care.
“And it’s not just us. All nutrition providers in the San Francisco Bay Area and the country face the same challenges,” Yu said.
Funding discounts at the local, state and federal levels have forced the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank to especially provide its services, according to an October news release. The organization faces estimated shortfalls of $2. 1 million last year and $6. 6 million this year, said Keely Hopkins, associate director of marketing and communications.
The bank expanded its home grocery delivery program during the pandemic to serve seniors who are more vulnerable to the coronavirus, as well as other groups, such as pregnant people and families with children with disabilities. At its peak, it served 13,000 households per week. however, today that number has dropped to just under 8,000, said Seth Harris, associate director of the program. By June 2025, the organization is also expected to close several open food distribution sites in reaction to COVID-19, Harris said. 18,000 households, Mission Local reported.
Last year, budget cuts at City Hall forced local organization Bayview Senior Services to cut off food supplies on weekends. This year, the company is facing another $500,000 cuts, CEO Cathy Davis said, forcing it to stop offering takeout, even though it will continue to provide home delivery. Davis said he’d like to increase food deliveries to meet demand, but the organization “doesn’t really have the financial resources to do much more unless we can increase our support. “
And the money the city gave this year to the Curry Senior Center for one of its food programs, which offers loose weekly groceries, is about part of what it gave last year, said Rubén Chávez, deputy director of the Array organization. Faced with a developing wait list, it began delivering registered food to others who can’t pick it up, Pinon said.
Organizations also get less investment from sources.
With pandemic emergency measures phasing out, the public feels nutrition systems are less essential, so organizations are receiving fewer donations from generous people, said Jim Oswald, director of marketing and communications for Meals on Wheels San Francisco. , which delivers bulk food to people. . people with disabilities and adults over 60 years of age.
Self-Help for the Elderly gets fewer voluntary contributions from others who get food through its catering and home delivery programs. Before the pandemic, the nonprofit earned 80% of budgeted contributions, but after the pandemic, that sum dropped to “10% on smart days,” Yu said, resulting in a loss of $1 million for the organization.
“People don’t have the ability to donate because everything is so expensive,” Yu said. “It’s like squeezing water out of a turnip. “
Lack of confidence in eating among older adults — when they don’t have enough to eat and don’t know how they’ll get their next meal — is rarely a “hot topic” for big funders, Yu added.
Corporate sponsors helped fund the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s grocery delivery program. When the company lost its patronage, this was a major factor that forced the bank to scale back the program.
In interviews with the San Francisco Public Press, many contractors criticized City Hall for its budget cuts.
“The city has done as productive as it can, but we also perceive that they don’t have as much cash as they used to,” Davis said.
City Hall is still suffering financially from the pandemic, which created remote work rules that emptied downtown offices and depressed advertising real estate values and tax revenues. Mayor London Breed signed a $15. 9 billion budget on July 27 that closed a projected two-year deficit of about $800 million.
That included a cut to the budget of the Department of Aging and Disability Services, which budgets for food systems for seniors and others with disabilities, spokesman Joe Molica said. To maintain facilities at existing levels, expansion projects for some systems have been postponed. The ministry will invest about $30. 5 million in food systems over the next year.
Food suppliers and recipients are still recovering from the loss of other public investments as the risk of COVID-19 decreases.
As the novel coronavirus threatened lives and incomes, the federal government increased investment in CalFresh, the state program formerly known as “food stamps,” which gives other people more money each month to buy food. When this emergency investment ended in April 2023, the monthly allowances decreased, for some other people, to several hundred dollars. There was an increase in food confidence across the state, according to data from the California Association of Food Banks.
The federal government has also pumped tens of millions of dollars into food systems for San Francisco’s seniors and citizens with disabilities, but most of that money stopped flowing in 2022. The main investment target was the Great Plates Delivered program, which brought food to restaurants. to San Francisco. homebound seniors and other adults vulnerable to COVID-19.
In the coming years, nutrition systems for older adults will be increasingly necessary.
For decades, food distrust in the United States has been on the rise among families with seniors ages 65 and older, according to a 2023 study by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. It’s not unusual. among older people who live alone. about 11% of those families, compared to about 6% in 2001; This percentage has increased dramatically amid the pandemic.
Adults ages 60 and older are the fastest-growing age group in San Francisco and will make up more than 30% of citizens through 2030, according to the California Department of Finance. They would possibly face barriers to obtaining healthy foods that other teams might not face. encounter, similar to their physical and monetary limitations.
Mobility issues make cooking and shopping for food difficult for others who cannot drive or easily carry heavy bags on public transportation.
Many seniors also rely on Social Security as their only source of income, and that cash no longer circulates as it once did. Grocery prices over the past four years have risen 25%, even as supermarket chains have made huge profits.
“When you live on less than $1,300 a month, you have to make difficult decisions about what expenses you’re going to pay,” said Oswald, of Meals on Wheels San Francisco. Nearly two-thirds of the other people the organization serves live on less than $1,300 a month. that.
People with disabilities, another developing population in San Francisco, would likely face similarly demanding monetary situations when their only source of income comes from government-paid disability insurance benefits. The average monthly payment is around $1,538.
Lack of trust in food disproportionately affects other people of color. In California, mixed-race adults are the racial organization most at risk for food distrust: 50% have this status, followed by African Americans, at about 49%, according to a 2023 report from the Center for Health Policy Research at UCLA.
People of color also suffer from diet-related diseases at the highest levels. In San Francisco, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are hospitalized for diabetes, hypertension or core illnesses at rates nine times higher than the city average, according to a 2023 report from The Department of Public Health. African Americans are hospitalized about 4 times more than average. They are also the city’s racial teams with the shortest life expectancy.
Recently, on a Wednesday morning, at the Dr. George W. Dr. Davis, several seniors stood outside, waiting for the doors to open so they could pick out bulk goods as part of the organization’s food pilot, who looked like a farmer. market. They lined up early because they were worried they wouldn’t get all the parts they needed, said LaTonya Young, a case manager for citizens who live there. He added that there was enough food for everyone that morning.
The loose trips have been “a wonderful help” for Rogelio Balbin, 60, and his spouse, who recently immigrated to the United States and are still out for work. Balbín had been coming to the pantry for 3 months, he said. Grapes and apples were two of his favorite dishes.
The program is funded until June 2025 and it is unclear if it will continue beyond that date. As other organizations scale back their own food programs, this line will most likely become increasingly filled with other people like Balbin.
For now, “we’re taking over,” said Young, who is satisfied with her work.
“What motivates me every day,” Young said, “are older people and their stories. Some come from homelessness, others still use the vegetables and we also offer hot meals. It’s a glorious thing to see what we’re doing.
Madison Alvarado is a San Francisco-based journalist who focuses on California’s housing crisis, environmental justice, and structural inequality. In addition to reporting on public housing and hiring relief on Public Press, he has covered issues similar to the coronavirus pandemic, housing, and city government for San Francisco’s Mission Local newscast.
This is Joel Engardio.
一部分正在敦促他修改這項提案或將其從投票中撤回.
(This story is also available in Spanish. Click to locate it. )
Many of Supervisor Joel Engardio’s constituents, who in West San Francisco, said they were surprised by his decision to co-sponsor a ballot measure to permanently close the Great Highway to traffic and turn it into a park.
They said he had consulted them before supporting the measure and some are pressuring him to replace it or remove it from the ballot.
The San Francisco First Team’s outreach paintings to other people living on the streets have been declining for years and may continue to decline.
Years-long staffing issues and work conversion priorities have caused this decline, leaving the team with less time for their core mission: working with homeless people and helping them access social facilities and housing. Homeless advocates approved of the team’s new efforts to bring other people home, but worry that officials’ political motivations could influence the changes.
San Francisco Public Press publishes investigative reporting online and in print, and produces audio journalism podcasts on KSFP, 102. 5 FM. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, we have secured investments from national and local foundations and thousands of individuals. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
We count on your support. A generous donation, regardless of the amount, helps us continue offering this service to you.
44 Page St. Suite 504, San Francisco, CA 94102 | (415) 495-7377