FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, December 9, 2021
Contact: Alison Hawkes, Director of Communications: DPH-press@sfdph.org
Media availability between 10:00 and 11:30 a.m.
***PRESS RELEASE***
San Francisco, CA–The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) in partnership with the San Francisco African American Faith-Based Coalition and other local community-based organizations will host a holiday giveaway event called “Feeding 5000” on Saturday, December 11 from 9:00a.m.-3:00p.m. to provide holiday resources to some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents. At the event, staff and volunteers will distribute turkeys and trimming bags, gift cards, culturally appropriate foods, and other resources to community and faith-based organizations to be delivered to more than 5,000 households in San Francisco identified by the effort’s partners as families in need of assistance. Items will be distributed via a drive-through service at City College of San Francisco with strict COVID-19 safety procedures in place. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, one in four San Francisco residents were at risk of hunger due to income shortage. With an increased number of residents out of work, the number of people struggling to afford enough nutritious food is also increasing and the City’s non-profit partners have reported a surge in demand for food. In this effort, SFDPH is joined by the African-American Faith-Based Coalition, SF New Deal, and TogetherSF to bring these greatly needed services to the community.
Feeding 5000 builds on the longstanding efforts of many faith-based congregations to host weekly food pantries. When the pandemic hit, the pastors received SFDPH guidance on how they could protect their congregants and still meet the needs of the congregation. The Coalition pastors immediately began to develop remote worship services to support their congregants, and quickly pivoted into providing direct food support. Coalition Pastors and Liaisons have been delivering to 860+ households each week, and in 2021 distributed 30,000 grocery bags of food and staples, and 350,000 prepared meals, as well as holiday gift-cards.
The San Francisco African American Faith-Based Coalition is a health and wellness collaborative of over 21 churches in San Francisco. The Coalition is committed to advocating for the needs of the underserved African American community city-wide. Collectively, the members of the Coalition represent over 6,000 African American residents. The Coalition was launched in November of 2016, to address high priority health needs identified in the 2016 San Francisco Community Health Needs Assessment. The SF African American Faith-Based Coalition leveraged partnerships with a variety of food providers (Arcadio’s, Dixson Catering, Earl’s Organics, Glide Memorial, Pacific Agri-Products Inc., SF New Deal, TogetherSF, and SF Marin-Food Bank) to obtain high quality, meals and groceries.
This collaborative effort includes: African American Arts and Cultural Center, A. Philip Randolph, B-Magic, Bayview Rotary, Bayview Senior Services, Bayview YMCA, Community Awareness Resources Entity, Community Living Campaign, Delta Sigma Theta, Human Services Agency (Department of Disability and Aging Services), Dream Keeper Initiative, Five-Point, Hirsch Philanthropy Partners, HOPESF, Imani Breast Cancer Group, Inner City Youth, Mother Browns, Office of Education and Workforce Development, Rafiki Coalition, Recology, Regional Pacific Islander Related Management Company, Requity/Peace Parks, Salesforce, Samoan Community Development Center, The San Francisco Chapter of The Links Inc, San Francisco City College, San Francisco Rec & Park, San Francisco City College Police Department, San Francisco Fire Department, San Francisco Human Rights Commission, San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Unified School District, Southwest Community Corp, Sojourner Truth Foster Family Services, Stand in Peace International Taskforce, 3rd Street Youth Center, UCSF, Uniti Resources, and USF.
This event distributes holiday giveaways through community-based & faith-based organizations, and we are not able to do direct donations to individuals.
People can reach out to the African-American Faith-Based Coalition: info@sfaafbcoalition.org if they are not already connected to one of the above organizations. Volunteers are needed for this event, Saturday, Dec 11, 2021, especially between 12:00-3:00p.m. You can sign up to volunteer here.The event will be at the City College parking lot on Frida Kahlo Way.
Members of the media are welcome to cover the event between10:00 and 11:00a.m. Further questions can be directed to: DPH-press@sfdph.org
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