{"id":159204,"date":"2026-02-01T15:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/159204\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T15:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:23:11","slug":"for-56-years-this-berkeley-food-pantry-built-a-community-now-its-shutting-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/159204\/","title":{"rendered":"For 56 Years, This Berkeley Food Pantry Built a Community. Now It\u2019s Shutting Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly sad,\u201d said Marice Ash, who has volunteered every Wednesday for three and a half years. \u201cIt just feels like a very mutual, self-help community coming together. I\u2019m going to miss it \u2026 and people need this. That\u2019s hard, too, knowing that we\u2019re closing when there\u2019s so much need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ash said that other food banks nearby will likely absorb the organization\u2019s stock and customers, but the pantry has always felt different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a little anarchic,\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cIt\u2019s a creative place, and we\u2019re not stuck in narrow jobs. If you see a job that needs to get done, you can jump in and do it. And the clients are jumping in all the time, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who\u2019ve been here for years and years \u2014 in fact, some people \u2026 are still working here every day,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Ash remembers when Franklin first volunteered: For years, she rummaged through the church\u2019s garbage bins for cracked eggs and spoiled produce to feed her chickens. One day, she came by during a distribution and noticed that the crew was short-staffed, so she locked up her bike and offered to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never missed a day since,\u201d Franklin said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Volunteers Kris Starr\u2019Witort (left) and Carter Mehl embrace outside the Berkeley Food Pantry on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The pantry is set to close on Friday after 56 years in operation. (Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Becky Cooper mans the \u201cmilk area,\u201d directing clients to the right food bags from behind a small plastic table on Wednesdays. She said she started volunteering about nine months ago, when she came to pick up groceries for a neighbor on a day that they didn\u2019t have a lot of help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018[Do] you want me to put my groceries in the car and then I\u2019ll come help?\u2019 That\u2019s how that happened,\u201d she told KQED.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice interaction with the people, and it makes me smile,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you can smile on Wednesday, you can make it to Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pantry was founded by a Berkeley Friends Church member in 1969, and it still operates under the church\u2019s 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n

\"\"Prepped paper bags line the walls inside Berkeley Friends Church on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The church has housed the Berkeley Food Pantry for years and will host its final distribution on Friday. (Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n

But last month, as the church and the Berkeley Food Network tried to negotiate the future of the pantry, it became clear that neither organization had the capacity to transition and keep the pantry running, \u201cparticularly in light of the impacts of the government shutdown<\/a> and surging needs for food assistance,\u201d they said in a joint statement. \u201cThis mutual conclusion reflects a commitment to responsible stewardship of community resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franklin said that when the partnership with Berkeley Food Network fell through, a group of volunteers had hoped to find another nonprofit that might take in their operation. They identified two in the fall; one didn\u2019t have a physical space large enough, but the other, First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, already runs a bi-weekly pantry on Saturdays, she told KQED.<\/p>\n

She said the Berkeley Friends Church didn\u2019t seem open to those options.<\/p>\n

Steve Sims, the presiding clerk for Berkeley Friends Church, said that the church is aware that some volunteers are trying to relocate the operation elsewhere and plans to meet with them in February to share their knowledge and give input. He said the pantry has volunteer and donor lists it could share.<\/p>\n

\"\"Marice Ashe, a longtime volunteer and public health advocate, pauses while preparing grocery bags inside Berkeley Friends Church on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The church has housed the pantry for years and will host its final distribution on Friday. (Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to kind of take a fallow period to catch our breath, and then we\u2019re going to do some discernment about what should be done with residual resources,\u201d he said. The new operation wouldn\u2019t operate under the same name, he said, but \u201cif the new pantry is something that looks like it\u2019s a viable operation and would be a responsible use of that money that still remains, we could contribute to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But running the pantry out of the church is no longer an option, after it grew rapidly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic while the congregation dwindled in size.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just didn\u2019t have the capacity to run that big of an organization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Along with the community they built over several years, volunteers said the pantry\u2019s closure also means losing longstanding relationships that people who\u2019ve worked at the pantry for more than a decade have formed with local grocery stores and nonprofits. Most of that food will be redirected to other organizations, like Berkeley Food Network, but Franklin said some of these deals were unique, like one that a volunteer had struck up with the local Trader Joe\u2019s for their damaged egg cartons.<\/p>\n

\"\"A van marked with the Berkeley Food Pantry logo is parked as two people pass by on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. (Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n

She takes out the cracked ones and repackages the good eggs into new dozens \u2014 setting aside the broken ones for Franklin\u2019s chickens.<\/p>\n

Target delivers diapers and toiletries, and Tim Tang, who travels more than two miles by bike and bus to reach the pantry from South Berkeley, said he can sometimes get a rare assortment of specialty foods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can pick up stuff that they usually don\u2019t give out at food banks, like fermented foods \u2026 kimchi or some kombucha, or a bread that\u2019s not made from wheat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Customers can get four bags once a month \u2014 two of produce, along with one of grains and another with meat and eggs \u2014 and can come back a second time for two more, Cooper said. But Tang shows up on almost every distribution day because of another unconventional fixture of the pantry\u2019s operation: the sharing table.<\/p>\n

\"\"Two community members reach for a can of soup at a food swap table outside the Berkeley Food Pantry on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. (Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n

In the back corner of the church parking lot, people gather around two plastic folding tables, discarding and grabbing items they don\u2019t want to schlep home or likely won\u2019t eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe general idea is that if you don\u2019t want it, you put it on the table, and then there\u2019s always other people like us vultures kind of circling around,\u201d he said, eyeing a can of corn that\u2019d just been put up for grabs. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of, so they don\u2019t have to haul it home and throw it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said when the pantry closes, he\u2019ll probably go to the Berkeley Food Network\u2019s 9th Street warehouse, where they distribute food on Tuesdays and Thursdays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be kind of a pain,\u201d he said, adding that getting to the other spot means a bus transfer and likely longer lines.<\/p>\n

\"\"A flyer posted at Berkeley Friends Church announces a Jan. 31, 2026, event marking the closure of the Berkeley Food Pantry after more than five decades in service. (Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Most of the volunteers said they would also look elsewhere to continue their work, though many aren\u2019t sure where yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext Monday, when I\u2019m not going to be here, am I going to be happy? I\u2019ll figure out a routine for myself; it\u2019ll just be different. I\u2019ll be losing contact with a lot of the people around here,\u201d Franklin said.<\/p>\n

As Wednesday\u2019s distribution was wrapping up around 4 p.m., many of the regulars were headed to Ash\u2019s house to commemorate the final day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve vowed to try to stay in contact. But you know people have busy lives,\u201d Franklin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly sad,\u201d said Marice Ash, who has volunteered every Wednesday for three and a half years. \u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-159204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}