Episode 2: SF Marin Food Bank

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Volunteers bagging food, delivering food, folks in line for food at the SF Marin Food Bank facilities

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 “Food insecurity is just one challenge that our participants face”

In this episode we feature the voice of Katy McKnight, the Director of Community Engagement with the San Francisco Marin Food Bank. The San Francisco Marin Food Bank’s mission is to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin where one in four neighbors is at risk of hunger. The Food Bank was providing food for Thirty Thousand households per week.

This was all before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and tens of thousands of people in San Francisco and Marin lost their jobs. The need is estimated to have doubled over the past Ninety Days. Over 100 of the food bank's 250 plus food pantries had to close because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the original broadcast of this interview in the summer of 2020 the demand for food has continued to expand with San Francisco Marin Food Bank is now distributing 1 million 300 hundred thousand meals each week in the summer of 2021. The food bank is operating 27 emergency pop up pantries at schools and community centers to address the massive food in-security facing our neighbors and is distributing food to 55 to 60 thousand households.

The food bank is operating 20 plus pop-up pantries at schools and community centers to address the massive food in-security facing our neighbors. To help feed home bound seniors who used to visit the San Francisco Marin Food Bank pantries for groceries they have created the Pantry at Home program to deliver food directly to and estimated nine thousand plus seniors.

Katy Mann McKnight 

Katy Mann McKnight, Director of Community Engagement joined the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank in 2013. Prior to working at the Food Bank, Katy held various marketing, events, sales and public relations roles in the private sector. In her current role, she directs the strategy and implementation of the Food Bank’s Community Engagement work. This includes overseeing a robust volunteer program, all food and fund drive campaigns, internal and external events, and corporate development. Katy is dedicated to serving the community and her enthusiasm and creativity has led to significant growth in the Food Bank’s community engagement program.

Katy holds a B.A. in Communications from California State University-Sacramento. In her spare time, Katy is the Assistant Club Director and Head Coach of the NOMAR Volleyball Club. Katy lives in San Francisco with her husband, a fellow Food Banker.

San Francisco-Marin Food Bank

We envision a community where everyone is able to obtain enough nutritious food — in a dignified manner — to support the health and well-being of themselves and their families.

Meals and people served - The Food Bank distributes enough food for more than 110,000 meals each day. During an average week, our programs serve more than 32,000 households. In total, the Food Bank provides food to 205,000 people each year. The San Francisco and Marin Food Banks will distribute 48 million pounds of food this year. More than 60 percent is farm-fresh fruits and vegetables.

COVID-19 Response - As an essential service, the Food Bank continues to do the day-in and day-out job of making sure vulnerable neighbors get the food they need. We have put various solutions in place to be able to continue providing food to help our community prepare for whatever challenges the Coronavirus (COVID-19) presents. Information about our COVID-19 response can be found here: https://www.sfmfoodbank.org/response-to-covid19/


Stats: 


◦ We are currently serving 55,000 to 60,000 households weekly. Note this number continues to change on a weekly basis. 
Distributing 1,300,000 meals weekly

◦ The traffic to our online Food Locator is 4 times as many visits.
 2 times as many households served each week.

◦ Our Cal Fresh team in San Francisco is fielding nine to ten times more calls than before the pandemic. In Marin, we are looking at a doubling of calls. 


Find out more about the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and how to get involved please visit https://www.sfmfoodbank.org/

Donation / Fundraising / Volunteering:

With the COVID-19 pandemic the food bank needs volunteers to help bag and deliver food. You can also start or participate in a Food Drive. With an unprecedented demand for food the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank has launched a special Covid-19 Crisis Gift campaign that is looking for donations of any amounts.

Videos

To find out more about the SF Marin Food Bank’s work check out the videos:

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