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 reducing their offerings as more people line up to buy loose food and bags of groceries.
“We’ve noticed this line grow, grow, grow,” 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 irritation in crowded retail establishments or deal with skyrocketing food prices. But as emergency measures have ended, subsidies have decreased, and recent local budget cuts to San Francisco service providers have further threatened food systems.
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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, head of systems and compliance at Self-Help for the Elderly, which offers bulk food and many other things like housing, case management and hospice care.
“And it’s just us. All nutrition providers in the San Francisco Bay Area and across 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 grocery delivery program during the pandemic to serve older adults most 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 homes a week, but today that number has dropped to just under 8,000 homes, 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. The sites serve 18,000 homes, Mission Local reported.
Last year, budget cuts at City Hall forced local organization Bayview Senior Services to stop providing food on weekends. This year, the company faces an additional $500,000 in cuts, CEO Cathy Davis said, forcing it to stop offering takeout, even though it will continue to provide delivery. Davis said she would like to increase food deliveries to meet demand, but the organization “really doesn’t 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 weekly groceries in bulk, is about part of what it gave last year, said Ruben Chavez, the organization’s deputy director. , staff have begun dropping out walk-in registered food to others who can pick it up, Pigon 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 dine-in and delivery programs. Before the pandemic, the nonprofit earned 80% of budgeted contributions, but after the pandemic, that figure dropped to “10% on a smart day,” Yu said, resulting in a $1 million loss. 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 organization lost its sponsorship, it was something fundamental that forced the bank to reduce the program.
In interviews with the San Francisco Public Press, many contractors criticized the City Council 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 Disability and Aging Services, which budgets for food systems for seniors and other people with disabilities, spokesman Joe Molica said. To maintain the 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 providers and recipients are still recovering from the loss of other public investments as the risk of COVID-19 has decreased.
As the novel coronavirus threatened lives and incomes, the federal government increased investment in CalFresh, the state program formerly known as “food stamps,” giving other people more cash a month to do their shopping. When this emergency investment ended in April 2023, monthly benefits decreased (for some people, by several hundred dollars). According to data from the California Association of Food Banks, there was an increase in food confidence across the state.
The federal government also pumped tens of millions of dollars into food systems for San Francisco’s elderly and disabled residents, but most of that money stopped flowing in 2022. The biggest investment was the Great Plates Delivered program, which brought food from restaurant in San Francisco. . homebound older adults and other adults who are vulnerable to COVID-19.
In the coming years, nutrition programs for the elderly will become increasingly necessary.
For decades, a lack of trust in food in the United States has been on the rise among families with older adults age 65 and older, according to a 2023 study by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. UU. No is unusual among older people who live alone. about 11 per cent of these families, compared with about 6 per cent in 2001; This percentage has increased dramatically in the midst of the pandemic.
Adults 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 healthy food that other teams might not face. encounter, similar to their physical and monetary limitations.
Mobility issues make it difficult for others who cannot easily drive or carry heavy bags on public transportation to cook and run errands.
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’re living on less than $1,300 a month, you have to make tough 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, may face similarly demanding monetary situations when their only source of income comes from disability insurance benefits paid through the government. The average monthly payment is around $1,538.
Lack of food confidence 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 Food Safety. Health Policy Research at UCLA.
People of color also suffer from diet-related illnesses at the highest levels. In San Francisco, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are hospitalized for diabetes, hypertension or central 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 approximately 4 times more often than average. They are also the racial teams in the city with the shortest life expectancy.
Recently, on a Wednesday morning at the Dr. George W. Davis, several seniors were outside, waiting for doors to open so they could pick loose produce from the organization’s food pilot program, which looked like a farmers market. They had been waiting in line since 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 groceries were “a great help” for Rogelio Balbín, 60, and his wife, who recently emigrated to the United States and are still working. Balbín had been coming to the pantry for 3 months, he said. Grapes and apples were two of his favorite foods.
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.
I’m Joel Engardio.
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