School may have been out for summer, but that did not mean Congregation Emanu-El’s Healthy Children’s Pantry went on holiday.
Partnering with Columbia Park Boys and Girls Club in San Francisco for its first-ever summer season, Emanu-El raised the bar for pantries everywhere, while at the same time addressing food shortages among low-income families.
Emanu-El already had an established, successful pantry at William L. Cobb Elementary School, but the congregation wanted to expand to another organization for the summer to keep the momentum of the program going.
“The Boys and Girls Club is one of the most affordable summer care programs in the city,” said Joanna Bauer, Emanu-El’s coordinator of neighborhood food programs. “We were shopping around for organizations that had a high percentage of participants that were low-income families, and 80 percent of the families that belong to the Columbia Park site are in that low-income bracket.”
Food is often the most disposable part of a family budget. When funds are tight, other priorities like rent, utilities and transportation must be paid just to sustain a living. Programs like the Healthy Children’s Pantry are a saving grace, organizers say, because they help to establish some sort of food security. Participants can then focus on more immediate financial concerns rather than worry about where their next meal is going to come from.
Supplied by the San Francisco Food Bank, Emanu-El’s pantry offered the members of the Columbia Park Boys and Girls Club fresh produce and nonperishable items like pasta and cereal, as well as cleaning materials to supplement their household supplies. By bringing the food directly to the families, the program makes grocery shopping more accessible for working families, while also hoping to reach and feed hungry children.
Emanu-El constructed the pantry to look like a farmers market to avoid any stigma associated with accepting food from an assistance program. “Because our pantry is open to all families, it is less likely that a child will be singled out for taking food, or that a family will feel stigmatized for seeking or accepting our services,” noted Bauer. “In that way, we hope that the pantry can build a community at the Boys and Girls Club rather than highlight the differences.”
The pantry was also a way for the Columbia Park staff to further the rapport they had already developed with the children, while connecting with the parents on a more personal level.
“We tried to use [the pantry] as a [conversation] piece with our parent engagement,” said Ivan Corado, the Columbia Park Boys and Girls Club coordinator. “Because of the pantry, the parents stayed longer, and we could catch up with them to talk about their children.”
Emanu-El’s pantry ended on a high note Aug. 10 by reaching its summer goal of feeding more than 100 families. The program will make its way back to William L. Cobb Elementary School in the fall.