On Sunday afternoon, I lugged a Tupperware of beans up a steep hill to Alamo Square Park. It was a little windy and overcast, but nothing was going to keep me from my mission: joining hundreds of San Francisco bean lovers in front of the Painted Ladies for a “Bean-Up.”
It wasn’t hard to spot the bean potluck, with attendees gathered around white sheets weighed down with bean salads, bean stews, bean dips and even bean desserts. I carefully set down my own chili bean salad (thank you Hetty Lui McKinnon for my favorite bean recipe) and began filling the bowl I’d brought from home with Greek chickpea salad, a mini bean and cheese burrito, and some butter bean pie.
The largely Gen Z crowd huddled together on picnic blankets, munching and mingling. One attendee was dressed festively in a fava bean crown; another brought bean-based dog treats and a dog named Lentil. At the center of it all, I spotted Madeline Schapiro, ebullient in a bean bikini top. (She’d made it herself, of course, out of real beans.)
Bean-Up organizer Madeline Schapiro, known online as bean.supporter, wears her handmade “Beankini” during the gathering at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. Schapiro made the cashmere-and-wool bikini and decorated it with beans she sourced from Mexico City. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
Attendees gather around a spread of bean-based dishes during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
Sean Roelofs carries a Spanish-inspired farinata made with chickpeas during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
A Berkeley influencer known as Bean Supporter, Schapiro has now made a career out of beans. She hosts monthly Bean-Ups and develops and shares bean-centric recipes like beanana bread and beantella. As a beanfluencer, she’s amassed more than 100,000 followers on TikTok, plus thousands more on Instagram and Substack. Recently, she quit her corporate job to go all in on beanfluencing.
Schapiro’s lifelong affinity for beans began at the age of 7, when she declared herself a vegetarian. But it wasn’t until 2017 that her relationship with beans blossomed into a full blown love affair. During college, Schapiro was experiencing some mysterious health problems. When doctors couldn’t seem to help her feel better, beans did.
“I ate a ton of beans, and I got my life back,” she said. “I am ever so grateful for the humble legume.”
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In the spring of 2025, she was in a bike crash and was undergoing some other major life changes. When a friend suggested she eat only beans for 30 days and share the experience online as a fun distraction, she decided to go for it. Thus, bean.supporter was born, quickly growing a devoted following.
Attendees share a meal on the grass during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
An attendee grabs food from a spread of homemade dishes during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
Attendees serve themselves from a spread of homemade bean dishes during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
Schapiro hosted the first Bean-Up at Berkeley’s Willard Park a year ago, echoing the popular Cake Picnic – but with a focus on fiber. Originally attracting just 20 attendees, the Bean-Up has grown steadily and even traveled to New York City in June.
Sunday’s event, Schapiro’s first in SF, was the Bean-Up’s largest ever. Nearly 400 people responded “going” to the event on the invite platform Partiful. Afterward, she estimated that at least 200 showed up.
“The Bean-Up is absolutely my favorite part of the work I do,” Schapiro told me. “I love creating community, especially over a shared interest, and I love encouraging creativity and seeing the different ways that people use beans.”
San Francisco bean-lovers certainly delivered on the creativity. Abby Drongpa brought a black bean chocolate cake with greek yogurt chocolate frosting, which looked professional and tasted like the best chocolate cake you’ve ever had.
“This is actually my version three in the past week,” Drongpa said. “I have been going crazy since I found this bean event. And I’ve been really into it because I really want to make a bean cake that does not feel like you’re eating beans.”
Dozens of attendees gather for the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
A bean pie topped with whipped cream, edible flowers and lavender is presented during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
Bean-Up organizer Madeline Schapiro goes around photographing attendees’ dishes during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
She and her friends actually discovered the event through Partiful. In fact, most folks I spoke with at the Bean-Up weren’t bean.supporter followers but instead found out about the gathering from the traction it gained there.
In recent years, niche Partiful events have become a popular phenomenon, particularly among Gen Z. They tend to generate more buzz the stranger they are, with viral events in San Francisco including a “guttural scream at the sea” and a “performative male” contest.
Picnicker Jordan Mann said he found the Bean-Up appealing for its “artistic, anthropological” merit and called it “social organizing as an art.”
“I think people are just looking for whimsy more than ever, and especially when it’s mixed with community,” he said.
Some attended because they found the idea of a bean-based gathering inherently funny. I heard at least one joke about Beano. But most were there for completely wholesome reasons: to befriend other bean-lovers.
“I’ve met so many people already,” said Sage Kasick, who brought a loaf of freshly baked red bean bread. “I feel like we’re all very different but come together for the beans.”
A vanilla bean cake made by Bean-Up organizer Madeline Schapiro is topped with figs, pumpkin seeds and other garnishes at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
Attendees eat together on the grass during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
Uttapam, a savory South Indian lentil-and-rice pancake, is served during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
In typical San Francisco fashion, the founder of a bean-related startup was also in attendance. Sarika Pokala, who said she’s been following Schapiro for a while and called her an “icon,” was handing out packets of fava bean snacks from her brand, Bada Bean Bada Boom. She explained that while fava beans are a common snack in China, “America, for some reason, we’re not bean-maxxing,” she said. “So, I just wanted to bring this out here.”
Bean-maxxing, however, is actually on the rise in the U.S. Since Schapiro got her start on TikTok in June 2025, she’s seen the advent of BeanTok. Late last year, beanfluencers began swearing by the fad of eating beans every day for a month – a trend Schapiro believes she inspired.
“I’m sorry, but there was no 30-day bean thing before I was a psycho and ate nothing else for 30 days,” she said. “… It’s no coincidence. But no matter what, I’m so happy that’s happening because people do need more fiber.”
Interest in beans spiked during the pandemic as more people began cooking them at home. Suddenly, the Napa-based Rancho Gordo’s Bean Club became one of the hottest subscriptions in the country. That momentum has only grown alongside wellness culture’s shift toward fiber – a nutrient most American adults severely lack. Rich in fiber and protein, beans offer a budget-friendly alternative to meat as grocery prices continue to rise.
While Schapiro said she sometimes feels like a “joke” with “everyone thinking I’m this eccentric bean woman,” certain messages she’s gotten from followers have made her realize that she’s part of something bigger.
A black bean chocolate cake made with Greek yogurt, and without eggs or flour, is sliced during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
Attendees gather around white sheets covered with homemade dishes during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
A plate is filled with an assortment of bean-based dishes during the Bean-Up at Alamo Square Park in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 2026. (Gustavo Hernandez/For SFGATE)
One bean supporter reached out to tell her that, after cooking her bean recipes for her anemic child, their blood work improved; another told her eating more beans lowered their cholesterol. For her as an environmentalist, the idea that she’s influencing people to choose beans over meat also delights her. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted,” she said.
Schapiro hopes to expand the Bean-Up to more cities (“big bean brands, we’re ready for you to sponsor us,” she said) and to keep spreading her love of legumes with inventive bean recipes. Her contribution to the SF Bean-Up was a toasted vanilla white bean cake with miso tahini tofu frosting and honeycomb brittle made from aquafaba, which comes from the liquid in a can of chickpeas. Sadly, it was demolished so quickly that I did not get to try it.
By the end of the picnic, the sun was shining, and I was full of beans – a beautiful thing to be.
“If people can be eating more beans, I don’t know, my life is kind of golden,” Schapiro said.
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This article originally published at Hundreds of SF bean-lovers descended on Alamo Square Park this weekend.