Highlights Part 2 - Food Security & Basic Needs - Transcript

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C-19 EP 2 Highlight Food Security

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George Koster: [00:00:00] Welcome to episode two of our highlight series J from the COVID-19 special series we produced from April of 2020 to January of 2023. Each of our highlight episodes features a theme. Today's show is focused on food insecurity and support wraparound services. This episode Revisits Peak Pandemic Hunger and the early days of the Global Pandemic.

George Koster: With the recent government shutdown, food insecurity and support wraparound services now appear even worse. You'll hear candid on the ground updates. Skyrocketing pantry demand radical hospitality on the streets. Hotel based care for women, one stop service navigation and home delivered meals for seniors.

George Koster: Together these voices map out practical actions. Join our co-host associate producer Eric Estrada, as he guides us through the compelling voices of our guest featured in [00:01:00] this highlight episode.

Eric E: Our first voice is Katie McKnight, director of Community Engagement at the San Francisco Marin Food Bank, as she discusses food security challenges.

George Koster: And so with the COVID-19 and the impact of more families and children asking for food, what have you and your team done to respond to the situation?

Katy McKnight: So I think the first thing for us that was sort of an indicator that things were about to change really significantly for us was we look at our find food page on our website as sort of an indicator.

Katy McKnight: And in February this year, that site had about 900 visits in April. This year that site had 25,000 visits. So we started seeing that increase and we knew early on we were going to need to pretty quickly and adjust our services. So we've done that a couple of ways. The, the biggest way in which we've had impact in the community is what we are calling our popup pantries.

Katy McKnight: So we had over 110 of our pantry sites out of [00:02:00] 275 had to close directly because of COVID-19. Right now, as of mid May, about 88 of them are back online. So we are, we're feeling pretty good about that, but right now we are, we know that there's increased names, so we've opened these pop-up pantries this week.

Katy McKnight: We are opening our 23rd pop-up pantry across San Francisco and Marin. And these are caught, we are pantries in every quadrant of the city and across Marin, where our families, our participants can go each week to gain access to healthy grains, protein, and fresh produce. When we first started these popups in late March, we were looking at serving about 300 to 600 households each week.

Katy McKnight: Now all of those popups are serving over 1200, 1500. We have one popup that serves consistently 1700 households each week.

George Koster: Wow. That's, uh, that's quite a volume. Would you mind sharing with the audience probably one of your kind of favorite stories or moments to the popup pantries [00:03:00] because you know now more than ever the food banks are out in the community itself instead of having people come to your site.

Katy McKnight: Yeah. I think back to one of the first pantries we opened was a site out in the Bayview, and I was there sort of acting as the greeter, helping manage the line answer questions and. We don't ask many questions about participants when they come to our pantries, but I like to try to strike up conversation.

Katy McKnight: And I spoke to this woman who is a barista at an independent coffee shop and had lost her job. And we were just talking, I was asking how she heard about the food bank. Was she familiar with the food bank? And she said, I knew that the food bank was there and was providing food, but it wasn't anything. I never thought I would be food assistance.

Katy McKnight: She asked if I had kids, which I said no. And she said, I have two high school age boys. Do you know how much one high school age boy eats, let alone two high school age boys. And she took a pause and got a little teary eyed and said, I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't know [00:04:00] how I was going to be able to do my job as a mom and keep my children fed.

Katy McKnight: And then I heard about the food distribution. I heard that I had access to food. It adds a little bit of relief and makes me feel a little bit better that I know I can at least do that and provide for my sons. I think that, for me, was one of the moments where we get so caught up in the logistics and we're moving so quickly and trying to serve so many people that sometimes the impact and the true stories of those that we're serving can get lost.

Katy McKnight: And for me that was that moment where I was able to sort of take a deep breath and reflect on. The work that we're doing and knowing that, you know, all of the support we're gathering, all the food that we're distributing really does mean something. And it really is tangible and we are directly affecting the lives of those that we're serving.

Katy McKnight: And I think that's a moment that I've been carrying with me for six weeks now, and it still gives me goosebumps. And you know, it makes me pretty emotional. Emotional, just to think. And that was just one. Um, the [00:05:00] thousands of households that we are serving in response to COVID-19.

Eric E: Up next is George Gundry, program leader and Kenneth Kim, senior Director of programs at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.

George Koster: Here we are 10 months in. How has COVID-19 impacted the daily operations of serving 2000 plus meals?

George Gundry: Yeah, it's sympathic in a big way for sure. I think that the number one thing is that pre pandemic we were serving our meals. In the basement of our building here at three 30 Ellis and two dining rooms, a main dining room and a dining room for seniors and adult with disabilities.

George Gundry: And since the pandemic, we've taken our entire operation and it's now outside right in front of Glide. We're serving Alfresco. The line still forms at the same spot, but we have a couple tables right out in front of Glide where we're serving our community. We. Ask the city to close off a 300 block of Ellis to traffic.

George Gundry: So on occasion we can put tents out in the street, we can put chairs out there, [00:06:00] practice, of course, physical distancing. Everybody wears a mask, you know, everybody's doing the right thing. And yeah, going from inside the dining room or inside the building to out on the street. You know, earlier this summer we formed a partnership with a company called Gate Gourmet.

George Gundry: You may know them from airline food, and at the height of the summer, they were donating and delivering some 10,000 meals a week that we would in turn serve our community and then give to some other partner organizations that just didn't have the resources that Glide has. So. It's impacted us in some pretty big ways.

George Gundry: I'm sure you've heard of glides grocery bag giveaway. Typically, we would give away 2000 bags of traditional holiday bags of groceries in front of Glide and through our Glide on the Go program, we would take the other 2000 and deliver 'em to some partner organizations that would then ask them out to their communities.

George Gundry: This year we actually rallied and put together 5,300 [00:07:00] traditional holiday bags, delivered them to 19 different partner organizations throughout eight or nine different neighborhoods in the city. So we're still serving hope, but we're doing it in a completely different way.

George Koster: Thank you. That's quite an impact.

George Koster: That many bags. So that's probably what, about 20,000 people? Something close to that, if not more. Yeah.

George Gundry: Yeah. I should mention each bag was set up for at least a family of four.

George Koster: Wow. So I'm gonna turn to you, Ken, and since you are really the senior director of all the programs at Glide, could you share with the audience a little bit about how COVID-19 has really impacted glides ability to provide its amazing services, especially not only to its Tenderloin neighborhood, but the San Francisco greater community?

Kenneth Kim: Yeah. I mean, there's been such significant needs. In terms of food security before the pandemic, it's known that one in four San Francisco families were struggling with food security after the pandemic. You know, four out of 10 Black and Latinx families are struggling with food [00:08:00] security. A lot of folks don't realize, they usually think about the free meals program and that it's sort of being.

Kenneth Kim: Bills that are homeless or unsheltered, but we also serve a lot of the working families who do meet the poverty line. And so a lot of times folks will come for our breakfast to supplement their income. And so for us as the pandemic hit, it was really important to make sure that, you know, safety was foremost for both our staff and the folks that we serve.

Kenneth Kim: But also the consistency of access. The fact that we do serve 364 days a year. Really demonstrates the consistency and the only day that we close is New Year's Day. And so the team has done an amazing job of just constantly innovating and pivoting as needed, working with other community partners, working with city agencies.

Kenneth Kim: To just make sure that the flu is there. One of the things that came to our attention very quickly in the early weeks of the pandemic was as Shelter in place came to ENC Close, a lot of the folks that relied on hand handling or low cost restaurants, those were treats for them if they [00:09:00] were able to get.

Kenneth Kim: 'em hold the money that they can actually enjoy a nice dinner at a small restaurant with those restaurants being closed with less foot traffic, you know, our ability to provide that food security as well as something that feels communal and nourishing was critically important. The other thing that we've done in terms of pivoting is just an amount of integration and collaboration that's happened across all the programs.

Kenneth Kim: The meals program in some ways almost feels like the kitchen after the home. It's like where we gather and come together. And so our harm reduction program, our. Family Resource Center or Women's Center, there hasn't been one activity that's pivoted that hasn't included the meals program. And I think even furthermore, as an organization, a lot of our staff that provide administrative support and those roles have also come together with the meals program.

Kenneth Kim: The loss of our volunteers was significant and it was just great to see not only the operational changes we needed to make to be efficient, but also to see some of our folks. In our finance department and in our human resources [00:10:00] be right there side to side with our nail staff. Providing those meals and really welcoming the community here has really been an important piece of us responding to the pandemic.

Kenneth Kim: And then lastly, I would say we've had the opportunity with our efforts with Matt Haney's office to turn our block into a Tenderloin resource hub. And so that means that the 300 block of Ellis is actually closed during business hours from a. Sunday through Friday, and now we're actually welcoming different community partners like Lava May Project Homeless Connect.

Kenneth Kim: And then the COVID testing that we're doing in collaboration with DPH is also an important element. So that means that folks that normally come in to get food at Glide can go right across the street and get COVID testing as well, and that we're really working together in collaboration to try to get a lot more health services on our block for that reason,

Eric E: we now turn to Jim Oswald from Meals on Wheels, San Francisco, serving home bound older adults. [00:11:00]

George Koster: And then also part of what you do, or Jim, is there's, you work with the food bank to also provide the delivery to seniors, which you know is a super important component given that so many of the seniors now are completely sequestered because.

George Koster: Of COVID-19.

Jim Oswald: Yeah. We wanna meet individuals where they are in the trajectory, right? So we do have many older adult clients who they just need a little assistance. They can still get out, they have mobility, but maybe they need, and they can still cook for themselves, but maybe they need a little assistance getting groceries.

Jim Oswald: So through our partnership with the San Francisco Marin Food Bank, we deliver right around. You know, uh, 500 bags of groceries per week. It's a volunteer run program right here at our Bayview headquarters, and this really helps those individuals. But also it's a way for us to develop a relationship with those individuals because over time, as people age in place in their homes, they may need more advanced services, such as our home delivered meals program.[00:12:00]

George Koster: And so Jim, how has COVID-19 really impacted Meals on Wheels? Ability to serve your seniors and operate? And of course I'm imagining that the need has really also exploded.

Jim Oswald: Yeah. Well, COVID in itself has presented all kinds of challenges for everyone, right? For us, the biggest priority was safety. Safety of our staff, safety of our volunteers, and safety of our older adult clients.

Jim Oswald: So from the first week of March, we went into emergency mode, so that meant. Enacting even more strict protocols that we already do. Kind of a little stepping back here. We're a safety net organization even prior to COVID-19. So for us, we're kind of set to handle emergency crisis. However, this was a huge crisis, so our goal was to make sure that.

Jim Oswald: Our staff were healthy and safe. That meant certainly all of the protocols, uh, sanitizing and PPE [00:13:00] and really social distancing. We've had to multiply our kitchen areas, uh, across various buildings throughout the city just so that we could accommodate social distancing needs. We enacted no contact deliveries with our drivers.

Jim Oswald: As I mentioned earlier, you know, one of the keys to our program besides delivering nourishment to our. Homebound clients is actually getting an eyes on them to see how they're doing and talking with them. Well, in pandemic world, it's kind of hard to do for their safety. Many of these clients have underlying medical conditions that make them really vulnerable to a disease like COVID-19.

Jim Oswald: So no contact deliveries. You know, talking with clients from a very far away, and even more importantly, enacting our social work division to actually make regular calls to individuals just to see how they're doing. So those are the big challenges. And of course for us, we rely on the generosity of individuals for donations, and our biggest fundraiser of the year had to be [00:14:00] postponed and actually canceled later on.

Jim Oswald: That's a fundraiser that basically. Is responsible for about 52% of the funding for our meals. So it's a huge chunk that's about $3 million. So we've been really fortunate that the community has been so supportive of us, and both philanthropically, but also donating in-kind services, PPE, all of those things.

Jim Oswald: But right now we're looking for continued generosity.

George Koster: To that point, Jim, wonderful picture behind you of your new kitchen you're working on. Please talk a little bit about that. But people who are viewing this or listening to this, you know, help, whether it's volunteer, if they don't have, you know, money to donate, would have time or resources.

George Koster: How can people get engaged in supporting Meals on Wheels?

Jim Oswald: Yeah, well, you know, as you see behind me, this is the brand new Meals and Wheels Kitchen and food production facility. So no matter what was happening throughout the year, and there was a lot happening, right, that we all were living through, but we continued our mission of making sure that not a single [00:15:00] older adult client missed a meal during the pandemic.

Jim Oswald: Matter of fact, our base increased by 246% of new clients requesting services from us. So it's been a very busy time. But throughout all of that, we were able to continue construction of our new facility, and it is ready to open in a matter of weeks. We expect by November to actually be producing the first meals out of this kitchen.

Jim Oswald: Just to put a little base to it, we pre COVID would produce about 8,000 meals a day. Yeah, during the pandemic we had to increase that to about 10,000 plus meals a day, which was really putting a strain on the kitchen. Our current facilities, the facility you see behind me will have the capacity for us to be able to produce 20,000 plus meals a day.

Jim Oswald: So, and it's surely needed because at the end of the day, we're seeing an increase certainly around the country, but. Particularly in San Francisco of our older adult population, and the projections show that basically we'll need to produce [00:16:00] 50 million meals within the next two decades. That's about 2.5 million meals a year.

Jim Oswald: So the increases there, the need is great, and we're just thrilled to be able to open this facility and provide services for another 50 years, hopefully, or longer.

Eric E: Coming up next is Alison Goodwin from Redwood Empire Food Bank, explaining their innovative client participation and tracking system.

Allison Goodwin: The reason that when we talk about social services and that safety net, the reason that hunger relief is unique perhaps to other programs that people access.

Allison Goodwin: So for example, subsidized housing, subsidized childcare. When somebody finds that they're in a challenging situation and they go to send resource and say, I'd like to sign up to be on the list for subsidized housing, I'd like to access subsidized childcare for my children. That's a list that once you are on it, and that's a resource that once you have secured it, you cannot jeop.

Allison Goodwin: You [00:17:00] can't say, okay, so I'm actually doing all right. I'm making a couple hundred more dollars a month in rent, so I'm gonna let them know and I'm going to perhaps give up my space and move somewhere else that I can afford right now. And the reason people wouldn't make that choice is because they will never get that spot back.

Allison Goodwin: Likely. Same thing for subsidized childcare. And what makes hunger relief different and accessing food banks different is that you can bow in and bow out. As needed and as your situation changes. So like David said, you might come once and say, wow, that was incredible. I'm so glad they were there the one time I needed it.

Allison Goodwin: And then you might say, okay, so I was here four years ago post fire, and I never thought I would be here again. And now I'm here because of said global pandemic. So there really isn't Jeopardy in saying, no, I'm good. Then there isn't Jeopardy again to say, actually, okay, I'm back. And really they get welcomed with the same energy and commitment that we were there four years ago [00:18:00] to David's point 27 years ago.

Allison Goodwin: There's no risk in them taking a break or coming as often as they need to.

George Koster: Thank you. And staying with you, Allison, could you share a little bit about the kind of program which has led, as I understand it, to the Daily Essentials program and the diaper bank part of it? So it sounds like you're also doing hygiene, et cetera.

Allison Goodwin: The W five program is our participation program. So the way we think about that is understanding a little bit about the clients that we serve will allow us to serve them better. So rather than the Revit Empire Food Bank, a short while ago thinking, oh gosh, we don't want any barriers to access. We don't really wanna ask anybody anything 'cause we don't want them to.

Allison Goodwin: Feel like they have to give up all of their information in order to access services. We quickly realized that if we do have something like diapers available or we get a donation of feminine hygiene products or toothbrushes for young children, the challenge was we didn't really know exactly where that need was and where those [00:19:00] families were.

Allison Goodwin: We had a guest to say, okay, let's try this rotation, but. Understanding a little bit more about the people that we serve and their unique household allows us to really streamline and target those distributions or those areas or regions that is, um, a necessity. So what that looks like is people come the first time that they come, we welcome them of course, and say, okay, this is how this works.

Allison Goodwin: You give us basic information about your household. Of course that information is not shared, but this is what we're using it for and this is how we are thinking about you as. Somebody that we serve, not so much that your household is being looked at. Are you the Jones family or the Smith family? It's more just about what access do you need.

Allison Goodwin: Would diapers be helpful to you? Would toothbrushes be helpful to you? Would come in and hygiene products be helpful, and then they register. One time they receive a card that looked like a grocery store clump card or a library. Club card and they can just scan that at each [00:20:00] distribution that they go to.

Allison Goodwin: And we're actually expanding W five to our partner network as well. W five is our participation program and it stands for the who, what, where, when, why of the people that we serve. So understanding how far they're traveling, how often they're coming, where does it make the most sense? Are they coming a mile away or are they driving seven miles?

Allison Goodwin: Not realizing that we have. Distributions closer to home for them, who they are, what they might need, and how they came to access services from us. So as they come for food assistance, we welcome them again. They scan that card and we can track the assistance that we're providing, which then allows us to gauge, okay, great, we had 10 families that need a diapers.

Allison Goodwin: Now we know exactly how many diapers to bring back to that same site later.

George Koster: Over this last almost two years, how has the COVID-19 pandemic really impacted the operations and perhaps expansion of the food banks programs?

Allison Goodwin: Our programs [00:21:00] are pretty well established in that they do take care of everyone. So again, thinking about our senior security initiatives, our Neighborhood Hunger Network, and also our Every Child Everyday programming, it didn't have to change.

Allison Goodwin: Who we were serving exactly. Just the modality as to how, so we are at a point where we've completely maximized our space. So stay tuned for what that might look like in our future, but with refrigeration and frozen and using offsite storage and using every inch of our warehouse. So there's definitely been a push and a pull and putting our facility to its max capacity.

Allison Goodwin: But from the participant side of things. I don't think they would feel that impact. I think we've done a really tremendous job at saying, don't worry, we got you. We're just adding opportunities to pick up groceries instead of something being twice a month. It might be weekly now or something being once a month.

Allison Goodwin: It's now twice a month. So it's really just consistency [00:22:00] for the people that we serve, so they know that we're a reliable source, because I don't think they would notice necessarily the impact as much as. All of us internally saying, oh gosh, how do we do this efficiently and keep the food flowing and keep volunteers safe, but also doing the work here too, because we can't do it without them.

Eric E: Thank you on the program now is Megan Beck from Simply the Basics, providing hygiene supplies to communities, experiencing homelessness.

George Koster: So how has COVID to 19 impacted the distribution, if you will, of hygiene products through the bank? I imagine it's somewhat virtual, but you still have to move products around.

George Koster: And so how is that going? And I can imagine that the demand for products has really expanded, given that so many people are. Unhoused still.

Meghan Freebeck: It's huge. We have known for the four or five years we've been doing this that hygiene health is public health, access to sanitation and hygiene supplies. It's not only a [00:23:00] basic human need, but.

Meghan Freebeck: It can impact the health of a whole community. And I believe the pandemic has really magnified that. It's really shown people what we all knew, which is that when someone in your community is sick because they can't clean, clean, they can't wash their hands, they can't access showers, then everyone is at risk of getting sick.

Meghan Freebeck: So we have seen greater awareness of the importance of what we do. But absolutely an increased request for supplies, increased requests for very specific supplies like sanitizers, masks, face shields, thermometers gloves, and cleaning supplies for facilities. I have never received so many requests for these ever before.

Meghan Freebeck: And you know, the challenge, the flip side is our volunteer groups are limited 'cause we can't have volunteer groups in person and we can't have them walking around as easily, but we are certainly doing it in a very modified state format.

George Koster: What would you say are some of the needs that you've seen and your team has seen that people can help with?

George Koster: Because [00:24:00] to your point earlier, what people donate. So is it better to donate funds if people have hygiene product? You know, is there a place they can go perhaps on your site to kind of is a checklist of these are the kinds of items that we need, if you want to donate them. And then of course, if people want to volunteer, which is very difficult these days, how can they go about doing that as well?

Meghan Freebeck: So absolutely donating makes a huge, huge difference. You can go to our website, www do simply theba.org, and there's a lot of information about hosting a hygiene drive as well as making a monetary donation and. Because of safety, you know, touching supplies and moving supplies around. We do really prefer and appreciate when people make a monetary donation.

Meghan Freebeck: It allows us to purchase and send directly to our recipients and to our partners exactly what they need. It helps us ensure that we are getting them the right items, the right mess, the right sizes, sanitizer at a lot of sites, they don't want sanitizer that has a certain level of alcohol in it, things like that.

Meghan Freebeck: So [00:25:00] we can really make sure that exact needs are getting there. But we also have a really cool platform for remote volunteering, so people are looking to volunteer. We have created a whole system that we actually developed before COVID, so that groups can volunteer anywhere. So a company, we had a group for Google, have about 40 volunteers all join virtually.

Meghan Freebeck: We get them the supplies in the mail. Or they do a pickup of supplies, and then we have a virtual conversation about hygiene and homelessness. We do a little bit of a compassion training, and then we all pack the kids together over video and we just ask that they be able to then drop them off at one of our receiving sites in their area, and we've got them all throughout the Bay Area.

Meghan Freebeck: We've got about 80 different receiving sites that they could drop them off at. So families have done this, parents of kids have done this, individuals are doing this. Absolutely. We love to get volunteerism and. If you are looking to donate, you can sponsor a volunteer group too and help cover the cost of their supplies.[00:26:00]

Eric E: From food banks, pantry closure and senior meals to hygiene, shelter gaps and navigation to shelter services. Our first half revealed how organizations serve vulnerable populations during challenging times. We heard from the voices of Katie McKnight, George Gundry, Kenneth Kim, Jim Oswald. Allison Goodwin and Megan Beck.

Eric E: Voices of the community is matching up to $500 for each of three food providers. SF Marin Food Bank, meals On Wheel San Francisco and Redwood Empire Food Bank. Make your tax deductible donation at voices of the community.com. Coming up in our second half is Mark Bailey, head of operations and Martha Martinez, head of Production and training at Hayes Valley Bake Works.

Eric E: The other question there would

George Koster: Mark would be some of the programs that you have. So for example, you do have the Project Home Disconnect, the Meals to Work program. If you can explain a little bit more about that.

Mark Bailey: Sure. I wouldn't say that's our main [00:27:00] focus right now, but that's one of the ways that we've been dealing with COVID.

Mark Bailey: I, I think it's we're we try to be a community organization as much as possible. We order all our food, all our coffee and things like that. We always use local vendors whenever possible. So being able to serve the community in any way is what we're all about. So we lost a lot of sales due to COD. So one of the ways to be able to not only help ourselves and be able to bring more trainees on, but be able to feed people.

Mark Bailey: Homeless. And so we started a program, the Meals to Work program, and reached out to Project Homeless Connect. So what we do is once a week when they're having their drop-in sessions for people who are looking for essential services, we bring food to them for those days, which is pretty amazing because if you've ever experienced homelessness or people who are aware of issues with homelessness, oftentimes you have to choose between whether you're gonna find a place to sleep at [00:28:00] night.

Mark Bailey: Or what are going to get something to eat? 'cause oftentimes you have to sign up for a shelter or you have to be at a certain place at a specific time. Well, a lot of churches and you know where places that are. Doing meal programs are also at specific times, so sometimes if you need some medical help, you have to go do that instead of get something to eat.

Mark Bailey: So being able to provide food when people are dropping in for their services is pretty key, and it also encourages more people. To reach out for help.

George Koster: Thank you. Uh, I'm gonna turn to you, Martha. And so here we are going on month nine of the COVID-19 pandemic. How has the pandemic really impacted your production and training there at Hay Valley Bake Works?

Martha Martinez: Yeah. Well, production wise, because we don't have that other store, we had to scale down on production a little bit, but we also had to change the menu. Because when we came back from, we had like a two month [00:29:00] break when everything shut down at the beginning, we decided we had to close for a little bit because we didn't know what was gonna happen.

Martha Martinez: So when we came back from that, we didn't know what our customers were gonna want. So we changed our menu a little bit. And also before the pandemic, we were doing the sandwiches, for example, grab and go. Because our trainees would come in the morning, make all the sandwiches, and then they would be available for the customers.

Martha Martinez: And that didn't work anymore for two reasons. Once we couldn't have that many trainees, since we didn't have that many customers. And also we didn't know how many sandwiches we were gonna need for that day. Everything was like up in the air. As far as the trainees closing, PUC was a huge cut of the trainees.

Martha Martinez: We would have, I think, in total between 20 and 25 employees, [00:30:00] and of those maybe 10 or 12 word trainees, so we that stored closed, then we couldn't provide that training, and when we started, we only had one trainee. Right now we have four. But's all because of the amount of customers that we have or don't have at this moment.

George Koster: And then, Martha, over your years of working there and training folks to work at Hayes Valley Bake Works, could you share a story that you feel shows the impact of Hay Valley Bake works on our c.

Martha Martinez: Yes. I think at the beginning we thought that we were gonna train people to be amazing cooks, and over time working with them, we realized that it was more about having a place to come to.

Martha Martinez: Some of them had never worked, so introduce them to the workforce and just having friends, for example, at work, having a purpose in life [00:31:00] that is very important and. Just seeing some of the growth of those clients, it's just amazing. Like some of them come very shy. They don't talk, they don't know what to do, and with time you see them and we all become like part of one family.

Martha Martinez: And for me, some of the clients when we haven't seen each other for a long time and when they come back it's like, I miss you so much, and they hug you of course before COVID. That is amazing. That's what I love about most about papers.

George Koster: Thank you. Nice story. How about you, mark?

Mark Bailey: You know, it's just great to be able to see people from.

Mark Bailey: Complete different backgrounds come together and be able to work together as a team. And we recently had somebody working here who had been in prison his entire life and he was in his late fifties and he was on shift with somebody with developmental disabilities. [00:32:00] You literally could have two different people with more.

Mark Bailey: Different backgrounds and to see them work together and kind of work as a team and mentor each other is just, it's just one of the most incredible things to see. And it just goes to show is like if you meet people where they are, people can do amazing things. If you judge people, you miss out on so much of what you can learn from each other.

Mark Bailey: So it's, you know, being able to see, get their first paycheck that they've gotten in years and just. Like Bill was saying, just watching people grow. You know, often people are shy and they just don't know how to react and how to work as a team or be a part of something that's bigger than themselves and people grow along the way is just, you know, it's just an amazing thing and that's the impact that we, that bake works and it takes a lot to get one person.

Mark Bailey: To get one person to grow and to get one person [00:33:00] along the way. So it's always hard to explain what the impact is overall on community because it's such an individualistic thing that we do here.

Eric E: Feature now is Nile's Benke from St. Anthony's discussing their dining room hygiene hub and recovery programs.

George Koster: So here we are, 15 months in COVID, still here with us, with Delta Variant. You know, how did St. Anthony's, I hate to use the term, but everybody loves it, pivot during COVID, and now here we are, we're still doing it, and you guys are in the process of reopening. And a couple of the programs that stood out for me, of course, was the.

George Koster: Potable Water Program and in your hygiene hub program that you guys are doing. And then last year I did a whole piece on the St. Bon's and the Sacred Sleep with the Coupa Project, and you guys are helping resurrect that. So tell us what your plans are for the future, how you're doing it now.

Nils Behnke: Maybe I'll start talking a bit about.

Nils Behnke: Impact of COVID and pivoting. It clearly has hit us all very hard. The thing that I'm probably [00:34:00] most proud of, what we have got accomplished is that we actually stayed open the entire time. We did not close down. We continued to serve our guests really almost without interruption, and we've actually picked up where some of the other providers of similar services.

Nils Behnke: For one reason or another to shut their doors to the guests at various points. So for example, in our dining room, we saw a significant increase. The meals that we provided at the peak, it was about three and a half thousand a day because other food pantries and other options had just shut down and just picture the scene of our people all hands on deck at the very beginning of COVID, where it was really unclear how it's being transmitted, what was possible, including all the people who worked in the office, came over to the dining room.

Nils Behnke: And help us, not just to keep it open, but to continue to serve our guests. So I think this is really great and we actually pivoted to have all services outside. So basically [00:35:00] we continued, like literally every program that we just talked about, of course, our recovery program continue to be inside and we still live there as residence.

Nils Behnke: All the rest. We actually move out to the street on the block here, and I want to highlight that the corporation with the city was very important in that the city was actually able to help us with temporary drug closure here that allowed us to use the entirety of the block to put our services outside.

Nils Behnke: So that was really helpful. I talked about the heroism of our staff, uh, this whole story, which is just something that I feel. We can be really proud of because really we had a policy in place that allowed everybody who so chose for health reasons to not show up here without us furloughing people, because that would not be aligned with our values to do that, right?

Nils Behnke: But the vast majority of people, everyone who could do health wise actually showed up. And the way they showed up was just. Exemplary though. It was wonderful to see that. And then lastly, I also [00:36:00] wanna mention the generosity of our donors. Actually, we received more donations last year than the year before, and I think a lot of people realized that it was more costly and harder for us to do these things, and they really stepped up.

Nils Behnke: So it was great, great experience. We've, you said we've learned a lot of things and we can talk more about the hygiene up in a minute. Two things that I wanted to highlight, reflecting on COVID, is we've learned when we said we pivoted to COVID, we don't just wanna go back to normal because, and I think that's true for a lot of things that we do, right?

Nils Behnke: Because. Normal for us is not good. What we do may be good, but the situation isn't good, right? So what can we learn and apply? And so I think this going outside and meeting our guests where they are has been really helpful. So for example, our social workers in the resource center have always done wonderful job, but being outside, I think made more people aware.

Nils Behnke: What is [00:37:00] happening and like what services we have to offer and make them more accessible. So there are certain elements of this being outside and meeting people on the street that we're gonna keep. As we have moved everything back inside, we still have that presence. And the other thing that I don't know you're aware of, probably not because we're just beginning with it, is we actually are working on a permanent block closure.

Nils Behnke: So the city was very cooperative and helpful with the temporary block closure from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM every day. What we realized here was all our neighbors on the blockers, that we could not just provide community services in a different way, but it also built community in a completely different way.

Nils Behnke: So we're hoping that we can accomplish a 24 7 closure of our blocks through traffic. We're calling it the Golden Gate Greenway. We've actually written a letter to the mayor. We've opened the website and we can talk maybe later about how people can engage, but that is a big project for the [00:38:00] future that has come directly out of COVID.

George Koster: And then Nas, could you share a little bit about the potable water program that you guys put together? Because I think most people, perhaps, who are listening is that we take for granted that we go to our faucet, turn on the water. But if you're living out in the open, if you're unhoused, having access to fresh water to wash your hands during a pandemic to do any kind of basic hygiene.

George Koster: So that was one of the pieces. And then I think that led to your hygiene hub is that recall.

Nils Behnke: That is exactly right. Yes. That was the journey we were on. We realized that access to water, to clean water should be a human right for everyone, but it's just not the case for a lot of our guests. So we started out with just some hoses and like an access point and what we saw there that people didn't just use it for water to drink, but really to wash themselves.

Nils Behnke: And what I'm saying is like really wash themselves in the street. And as we observe that. We felt that was really not in line with our idea of what it means to be recognized in your dignity [00:39:00] as a human being. And we felt we needed to do something about that. And so what we did is that we actually put forward a proposal to our board to set up permanent showers inside of our building.

Nils Behnke: A longer facility. So that's the hygiene hub. And I'm very proud that our board basically helped us in recognizing in a very difficult time where it wasn't clear how the whole COVID situation, what developed in our financial situation, what developed to just believe and step up and make that investment.

Nils Behnke: And I'm proud to say that we will open these showers and our hygiene hub with the laundry facilities at the end of August. So that's gonna be great and I think it's gonna be much appreciated by the community, especially as some of the other options that have been there, especially the mobile facilities of Nava Me are no longer around, so we help to really contribute here.

Nils Behnke: You also mentioned the safe sleep, uh, sacred service. That is right. People probably know that [00:40:00] for a long time. Across the street at St. Bon fas, together with the Gubbio Project, we have hosted people and gave them the opportunity to rest in the church during the daytime. We're planning to reopen this service to our guests again in September.

Nils Behnke: Obviously, we still have to manage through COVID, but we feel pretty confident that the time is right to do that again. So there are many good ways in which

Eric E: we have. Learned in Pul guitars. Up next are Denise Sandoval, founder and Chris Keebler, chief Program Strategy Officer for Lava May X, as they discuss mobile hygiene service for street communities.

Eric E: So

George Koster: I think before we turn to that point, over the last five years, Denise, what would you say has been the largest impact of your efforts and the community's efforts? Because not only have you put together this wonderful nonprofit, but you've also put together wonderful partnerships and you've brought a lot of volunteers, a lot of.

George Koster: People to the popup villages, et cetera.

Doniece Sandoval: Yeah, I would say that [00:41:00] probably our two most profound impacts are, one, we raised awareness about an issue that was not on most people's radar. People think if you're unhoused, you need housing, you need food, you need clothes. But understanding the fact that access to showers and toilets was a dire, in dire crisis in most communities was something that really.

Doniece Sandoval: People didn't know about until lava may kinda emerged on the scene. So I think that was really important. The second is, as you mentioned, we're built from day one, rooted in collaboration and partnership, right? We recognize that one of the most powerful things we can do is to get people to participate in this effort because it's gonna take all of us, but that also.

Doniece Sandoval: When you have an opportunity to actually meet and converse with, get to know people who are unhoused, what you find out is that they are more like you, like us than they are different from us. And in breaking down the barriers, then you break down the myths around homelessness. And the more we can do that with people, the more we feel we can affect [00:42:00] long-term powerful change to end the crisis that is homelessness.

George Koster: Thank you. So Krista, I'm gonna turn to you and have you walk the audience through. So we've got the accelerator and the whole DIY piece, and then your most recent project with the DIY hand washing.

Kris Kepler: Yes. So the process for us from a programming perspective in terms of how we came to this idea is it was very organic.

Kris Kepler: So as the pandemic hit, we were seeing the increased need to offer hand washing services on the street. And so I did some research and found that, you know, even if you wanted to rent a large scale hand washing station, it was very expensive or not even available anymore, or if you wanted to purchase this online, it was severely, it was back ordered.

Kris Kepler: And so. The combination of doing that research as well as looking at some really interesting initiatives that other organizations were doing. For example, love Beyond Walls, has [00:43:00] pre-made ready sinks that they're deploying to communities, which is a wonderful initiative that we were inspired by. As well as a partnership between Los Angeles Community Action Network and USC Annenberg School of Communication.

Kris Kepler: They created some hand washing stations to deploy in Skid Row. All of those kind of ideas and inspirations came together and we said, why don't we just create our own? Because there's nowhere for these. Units to be found. So a coworker and I got out our sketch pad and sketched up some ideas. We purchased some of these parts.

Kris Kepler: We put a prototype together and tested it out in Oakland around Lake Merit. And that's how the program was born. And so our goal with this is not just to deploy these to communities, but. In our backyard, which we're doing, but to also educate anybody to be able to do this and by offering them things like a supply list, an instruction manual, and a video tutorial to help them do it.

Kris Kepler: So [00:44:00] the whole goal is to make these programs easily accessible and deployable in their communities so that they can. Serve people in a more effective way, especially around hand washing, which is such a critical need right now.

Eric E: Joining us now is Sammy Rayner, chief Programming Officer for Community Forward sf, as she discusses their drop-in center shelters and hotel transition programs.

George Koster: Then you also work with, you have a sobering center as well, which kind of gets back to the whole idea of housing first as being a city policy, but then you also work with seniors. Can you share a little bit about that?

Kelly Bathgate: Of course. We're a 41-year-old agency, so have been around for a while and actually.

Kelly Bathgate: One of the very, very first services that the agency provided was sobering and going, driving around Vans, helping folks on the street who needed a safe place to sober up. And so we do on have a Hope, a sobering center where. People can come and just have a safe place to [00:45:00] rest, sleep, be under nurse's supervision while they're getting better.

Kelly Bathgate: And, and then at the end of that, when they are able to come out of and sober up, they're able to talk to a nurse, talk to a case manager, and think about other steps that they can take for their life and. We also, I think, didn't necessarily start focused on seniors, but the whole homeless population is aging.

Kelly Bathgate: That's something that not a lot of people know, so majority of the folks that we serve are over 55 across all of our different programs.

George Koster: The other thing I wanted to get to was how has COVID-19 really impacted your entire network of services?

Kelly Bathgate: It's hit each of our operations slightly differently. I think one of the heaviest and hardest impacted places is our drop-in center.

Kelly Bathgate: Our A women's place drop-in center serves about 3000 women a year, [00:46:00] and so as you can imagine, that's not an operation that can really run safely having lots of women in one space. Doing laundry, taking showers. And so it was really extremely difficult when shelter in place set in and city. I don't know if you know, but city shelters weren't taking new reservations.

Kelly Bathgate: And so we're having lines of women coming like, Hey, what am I supposed to do? And there was a really hard several weeks. When we were actually just sheltering in place in our drop-in center, so women in plastic chairs for weeks until the city was able to open up hotels, and that has been a really exciting lift of pressure off of us, not just the drop-in center, but our shelters were also really too full to properly socially distance.

Kelly Bathgate: So now that hotels are open to our clients, we've moved all of our folks who [00:47:00] are over 60 out of the shelters and programs and into hotels, and our staff are actually moved with them and continuing to provide care and services in hotels. So that's been the biggest transition, is just figuring out how to run these programs in hotels and keep people safe.

George Koster: And so what are some of the other needs that you're seeing

Kelly Bathgate: we're, you know, I think there's a lot of needs across the community. I think one of the biggest is just to continue this hotel push. There are not nearly enough people in safe spaces yet. I. We have been able to move a lot of our folks, but there's so many people who are still on the street who would normally be knocking on the door of a woman's place, drop-in center, and getting services who aren't being served right now.

Kelly Bathgate: So continuing to do that is important. Continuing to donate and provide personal protective equipment is really important. And [00:48:00] I think just to honor and recognize. The staff, not only of our agency, but of organizations across the community. I think now is a time when the public is recognizing that homeless services are public health services.

Kelly Bathgate: Housing is healthcare, right? You can't be safe from a pandemic if you don't have somewhere to stay. So. Continuing to advocate to your supervisors, letting people know this is really the most important way to keep people safe. We all keep hearing over and over, is to socially distance, right and protect yourself.

Kelly Bathgate: So advocating for everyone to be able to do that is really important.

Eric E: We now turn to Kelly Bathgate, chief Program Officer at Tipping Point, as she discusses research and policy advocacy work. And then you

George Koster: have an entire research component as well. And then you're lobbying. I, I think another really interesting piece of what you do is the corporate philanthropy piece.

George Koster: So can you talk a little bit [00:49:00] about the research piece, but then also you're going at to corporate philanthropies and say, please put your money where you say your values are.

Meghan Freebeck: Yeah, so I think one thing that's really unique and great about TippingPoint is that we sit in a position in between a lot of the work that our organizations are doing and an incredibly generous and influential donor population too.

Meghan Freebeck: So recently, within the last few years, we've ex. Standard from just investing in direct service organizations to lifting up and thinking, okay, what is it gonna take to actually move the needle on poverty? And realizing that while the direct services that our grantees are providing are critical, and we have to continue to invest in that, to be the strong nonprofit ecosystem that's serving people directly, we need to think about how we can expand that to have a greater impact through policy solutions.

Meghan Freebeck: Extend that impact as well as researching solutions that we may not know of yet. So within each of our areas, we have kind of a dynamic set of research questions that we are [00:50:00] continually asking to see, what solutions do we not even know about? How can we particularly focus on a population that may be disproportionately impacted by a challenge?

Meghan Freebeck: That kind of thing. And so that helps us invest in what we think will be most effective. And then on the policy side. Within each of our portfolio areas that I named, we have an anchor policy organization that aligns with what we're trying to make happen so that our organizations who are on the ground serving people have the most success doing that, and the success that they are able to have can be extended through leveraging additional public resources and potential legislation or regulations to help extend that impact.

George Koster: So within education, you would have a policy with regards to funding education and or a partner organization that's helping you facilitate that.

Meghan Freebeck: Yeah, that's a great example. So within education, our anchor policy organization is Ed Trust West, based in Oakland. And within that, speaking of kind of [00:51:00] education financing, what we are really focused on is equitable and consistent financing.

Meghan Freebeck: And so one thing that we know is a great challenge for schools, particularly those that are serving low income children, that the streams of funding. That come from public sources are greatly supplemented often in some of the wealthier suburbs, and so how do we ensure that the schools who need the most support are getting adequate resources?

Meghan Freebeck: The other thing is that because of state budgeting, that resources that are coming in sometimes can vary from year to year, and so it can be, as you can imagine, incredibly challenging to provide a high quality education without that level of consistency in budget planning.

Eric E: Wrapping up our conversation is Megan Beck from Project Homeless Connect, as she discusses service access modifications.

George Koster: So since a, a large part of Project Homeless Connect is to provide these really amazing community days of service event at the old Bill Graham Auditorium, and then your drop in center [00:52:00] as well as your mobile care van. How has the COVID-19 epidemic really impacted your outreach into the community?

Meghan Freebeck: Yeah, that's a really great question.

Meghan Freebeck: Certainly we've had to make a lot of modifications. We're really focused on continuing to achieve our goal, and so the ways we provide services has changed a great deal, but we continue to achieve the same impact. I'm really proud that Project Homes Connect was very proactive with planning for this. We knew that COVID was coming.

Meghan Freebeck: We knew that we would need supplies and changes and a safety net. So we started planning really early. Of course the greatest hindrance is to our community Day of service events. These events are large expo style service days, and commonly we have about 1000 to 1200 people come for services. Over a hundred services are provided, and over 1600 people might be in the Bil Graham Auditorium on March 4th.

Meghan Freebeck: Was our last one that we were supposed to have. So that was a [00:53:00] real challenge, and we had to decide on our own with the advice of the Department of Public Health, with the advice of healthcare providers, if we would end up having that event. It was before shelter in place, and it was before it was required by law to cancel.

Meghan Freebeck: So we did end up deciding to postpone that event. We know now that was absolutely the right decision. It could have been catastrophic, the effect of bringing thousands of people together in one closed space in a single day this march. So we're glad that we made the right call and now we're really taking our time to figure out how do we reach that same goal of access to services in a more efficient matter, but in a safe way and in a post COVID world, our drop in services continue.

Meghan Freebeck: We have appointments. We allow people to come on Wednesdays to receive anything they need in emergency, their mail, hygiene supplies, things that you really have to be in person for, and then a great increase in our virtual support emails and phones so that we can keep reaching people every [00:54:00] day.

George Koster: I know you guys have also put together hygiene kits and done some outreach.

George Koster: Are you still doing outreach to people who are finding themselves unhoused and living on the street?

Meghan Freebeck: Yeah, we are not doing it with volunteers right now as we commonly have done. We typically have volunteer groups that join us to do outreach and bring supplies and information to people in the community for the time being.

Meghan Freebeck: We're doing this as staff in a very modified format, and we're including in these hygiene kits. Things like masks and COVID, health information maps on where hand washing stations are in the city, things like that about. Services that are active today, so people know what they have access to, what is still available to reach, and really making sure that we update that information every day so that it's as up to date as it can be.

Eric E: As we close today's episode, here's what our guests underscored. Demand still outpaces supply. Culturally responsive groceries remain scarce. Seniors juggle rent, medicine and [00:55:00] meals. Families run out of snap before months end and diapers, formula and hygiene kits. Disappear first. Behind every food pantry distribution sits a fragile logistics web trucks, volunteers, refrigeration where one break ripples across route access barriers, intensify need mobile unfriendly portals, documentation, hurdles, and slow referrals.

Eric E: Postpone help. Yet we heard bright spots. Radical hospitality, restoring dignity. One stop navigation, linking food hygiene, benefits and stabilization, mobile showers, rebuilding health and trust, hotel respite for women and home delivered meals, keeping elders safely at home. A special thanks to our guests in the second half of our show, whose groundwork frame today's dialogue.

Eric E: Mark Bailey, Martha Martinez, nails Benke, Denise Sandoval, Chris Kepler, Sammy Rayner, Kelly Bathgate, and Megan Beck. To learn more about each guest and support their work, go to [00:56:00] voices of the community.com. Then go to the COVID-19 series, then go to series highlights, part two, and subscribe to our newsletter for updates and actions.

Eric E: Finally, we're matching donations, $500 each for the San Francisco, Marin Food Bank, meals on Wheels, San Francisco and Redwood Empire Food Bank. Click donate at voices of the community.com. Choose one or more of the food providers and we'll match your gift, amplifying your impact for neighbors who need it now.

Eric E: Thank you, and let's rejoin George to wrap up this episode Before we sign off. A sincere thank

George Koster: you for spending time with us today. This episode is part of our special highlight shows. Drawn from our COVID-19 special series, a body of work that began when Beak Media invited us under Paula Arne's leadership to co-produce SF Nonprofit Spotlight.

George Koster: Those 10 television episodes we helped to produce led us to chronicle the wider ecosystem of social government and [00:57:00] economic support. We introduced you to nonprofits. Small businesses, libraries, artists and public agencies adapting in real time to the first global pandemic in several generations. From April, 2020 through January, 2023, we produced 105 episodes documenting what it looked like to serve, survive, and innovate under extraordinary pressure and what our common community ecosystem demands from all of us today.

George Koster: And into the future. Here's how you can keep the momentum going. Start by subscribing to the Voices of the Community podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen. So new episodes find you automatically. Next, please rate the show and share it with friends or colleagues. Your reviews and repos markedly increase our reach, putting these voices in more ears that connect.

George Koster: Then subscribe to our YouTube channel for full video episodes and archives. Search YouTube for Geo Coster and click subscribe. If this [00:58:00] storytelling serves you, please consider making a tax deductible donation at voices of the community.com. Just click the donate button in your contribution directly supports field reporting, editing, mixing, transcription, and distribution.

George Koster: It keeps community media independent and accessible. We also want to hear from you. Send feedback on today's show, proposed topics, or suggest guests by emailingGeorge@georgekoster.com. Your note, shape our editorial calendar and introduce us to new problem solvers. We could not make these shows possible without our wonderful team.

George Koster: Associate producer Eric Estrada for co-hosting, plus his audio and video wizardry and designer Casey NZ of Citron Studios for her visual brilliance. Thanks also to our broadcast partners, K-S-F-P-L-P FM 1 0 2 0.5 FM in San Francisco, and K-P-C-A-L-P FM 1 0 3 0.3 FM in Petaluma for highlighting these [00:59:00] stories.

George Koster: I'm George Koster in San Francisco. And join us for our next highlight episode in the COVID-19 series featuring voices addressing homelessness and housing services for our unhoused neighbors. Until then, take care and remember, your voice matters.

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