San Francisco announced Wednesday that it would mail gift cards to recipients in the city to cover the lost benefit, but other Bay Area counties are scrambling with a patchwork of strategies. More than 5.5 million Californians receive CalFresh, and many must make contingency plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Josh Schneider, a case manager who also runs the kitchen at CityTeam Oakland, said he has noticed a major increase in calls about the nonprofit group\u2019s hot meal and grocery bag programs. He typically fields five to 10 calls a day, he said, but is now receiving more than 30 a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elder, too, has noticed an uptick in inquiries from people losing SNAP funds at the East Oakland Collective. Its food assistance program typically serves around 200 households per week. But with the usual donation sources exhausted, Elder has started raising funds to buy additional food. The group is also seeking more volunteers and food donations from individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For CalFresh recipient Julissa Gutierrez, the East Oakland Collective\u2019s free grocery distribution is a critical stopgap for her family\u2019s lost $150 monthly SNAP benefit. That money made up 75% of their total monthly food budget, she said. Gutierrez, her daughter and baby grandson had, for unknown reasons, never received their October SNAP payment. That stressor came on top of her recent job loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been affected already,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cWe are in limbo.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She started patronizing the East Oakland Collective\u2019s food hub two weeks ago. There she can stock up on fresh ingredients such as chicken and produce, whereas other centers she visited offered only canned food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Small groups provide sanctuary<\/p>\n
For people fearful that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will try to take advantage of the long food lines by harassing or detaining noncitizens and others, small and midsize food assistance operations could offer a critical option because they can avoid the long waits often seen at traditional food banks, community group leaders and residents said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who are undocumented, or even people who are documented, are afraid to be in a food line,\u201d said Yuka Nagashima, executive director of the Alameda-based food recovery and distribution organization Food Shift (for which this reporter once worked).\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Oct. 22, Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed the National Guard<\/a> to support food banks in an effort to to ramp up distribution. But that high-profile effort is likely to deter many immigrants from seeking food assistance, Nagashima and Gutierrez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nagashima said she was not aware of any specific incident in which ICE agents took someone from a food line, but that doesn\u2019t diminish the problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe powerful thing is the fear,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fear of it is preventing people from getting the benefits. The mutual-aid model is safer, because there\u2019s more of a sense of community there. You know each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Gutierrez said the caution can lead to isolation and material want: \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t go out and get their food or other things they need because they\u2019re afraid.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Community-based operations are adjusting their operations to protect people afraid of ICE raids. Homies Empowerment, an Oakland organization that distributes food, has shifted from asking people to wait in line to collect a food box to scheduling them in time slots to \u201cshop\u201d in the organization\u2019s free grocery store, said Rogelio X, the food justice coordinator at the Homies Empowerment FREEdom store, a community organization providing no-cost food to neighbors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing differently now is making sure our people are not in the streets,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying our best to protect our people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The East Oakland Collective has started offering to-go bags to enable quick pickups. It has also adopted a policy of noncooperation with ICE and police, and staff have received know-your-rights training to assist clients if incidents occur.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve grown relationships with the people who live in the neighborhood,\u201d Elder said. \u201cWhen people come to pick up food, it\u2019s from a familiar face. It\u2019s someone who looks like them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Those relationships are critical, said Tere Almaguer, environmental justice organizer at the nonprofit PODER, which serves neighborhoods in southeast San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about going to a trusted space with people who care about you, where people feel comfortable in their language and in their neighborhood,\u201d Almaguer said. \u201cDistribution centers are not just about getting food. They are community centers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Almaguer manages Hummingbird Farm, which grows culturally relevant produce and medicinal herbs that neighborhood residents can harvest for free. The farm is strategizing how to grow food more efficiently and choosing crops that will yield a hefty harvest.<\/p>\n Older clients hit hard<\/p>\n Even before news of the November SNAP suspension broke, food insecurity was pervasive due to recent inflation on top of the already high cost of living in the Bay Area, said Anni Chung, president and CEO of Self-Help for the Elderly, a nonprofit group serving immigrant Asian seniors and low-income families.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor seniors, food is the No. 1 concern,\u201d Chung said, adding that to scale up food distribution to meet rising demand, her organization will need a quick infusion of cash to expand operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n But in the last year, financial support for food programs has dwindled, nonprofit leaders observed. \u201cThere was a defunding of a lot of trusted food pantries from the last San Francisco budget, in July,\u201d Almaguer said. Many organizations had to consolidate or scale back services, leading to longer lines, she said. In 2024, too, city budget cuts led organizations to shrink their free meal offerings<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nagashima said in the last year she has seen East Bay food distribution operations shut down or shrink due mostly to declining philanthropic support.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important that we are able to fund these community centers,\u201d Almaguer said, noting that the hubs provide many services beyond just nutrition. But right now, the urgent task is to feed a growing number of people quickly. \u201cFor a lot of families that food box means whether they\u2019re going to eat or not that week.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco<\/p>\n Self Help for the Elderly Hummingbird Farm Oakland\u00a0<\/p>\n East Oakland Collective\u00a0 Homies Empowerment\u00a0 CityTeam Oakland\u00a0 Alameda\u00a0<\/p>\n Food Shift For additional food resources available to SNAP recipients, see a recent compilation of organizations from KTVU<\/a>, and a survey of restaurants providing free meals published by KQED<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facing suspension of federal food assistance benefits next week, Bay Area nonprofit distributors are bracing for a surge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[23708,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-32817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-food-security","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","11":"tag-san-francisco-news","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32817","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=32817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_9806.jpg\")
Candice Elder, the founder and executive director of the East Oakland Collective, greets people arriving at the organization\u2019s food distribution hub. Credit: Audrey Mei Yi Brown \/ San Francisco Public Press<\/p>\n
Food distribution (with items suitable for Asian households): every other Wednesday from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Chi Sing Community Center, 3133 Taraval St., San Francisco, CA 94116
and Geneva Community Center, 5050 C Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94112
Organizational needs: monetary donations<\/a>, volunteers\u00a0<\/p>\n
Farm harvest and work days: select Thursdays 9am-1pm & Sundays 11am-2pm
1669 Geneva Ave., San Francisco, CA 94134 \u00a0
Organizational needs: monetary donations<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
Food distribution: Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 a.m.
7800 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94605 \u00a0
Organizational needs: monetary donations<\/a>, in-kind donations, volunteers<\/p>\n
Free food shopping (by appointment): Tuesday & Wednesday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Walk-ins welcome after 1:30 p.m.
7637 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94605 (Fridge outside the Freedom Store is available 24\/7.)
Organizational needs: People can add meals to the Homies fridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Food distribution: 8-11 a.m., 1-5 p.m.
722 Washington St., Oakland, CA 94607
Organizational needs: monetary donations<\/a>\u00a0and volunteers<\/a> <\/p>\n
Organizational needs: monetary donations<\/a>, donations from food businesses, long-term (3 months +) volunteers<\/p>\n