Groceries for Seniors

Our strategies for making this happen include: Maintaining our relationship with the providers of our work space - which is at Old Saint Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco's vibrant Chinatown. While we are a non-denominational organization, we are the beneficiaries of having Old Saint Mary's Cathedral's auditorium space in the church basement in which to receive bulk food and break it down into individual grocery bags. We do this by being great stewards of the space we use and have provided kitchen cleaning and floor maintenance assistance as needed as thanks for use of the space we are granted. Maintaining our long-standing and great association with the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. We get the bulk of our food from the SF-Marin Food Bank and they are incredible partners in our efforts, Maintaining and BUILDING our relationships with individual and Foundation donors in order to keep our hard cost overhead (delivery van, 2 part time salaries, supplies, etc.) covered.

We have met our goals for the last nineteen years and I am confident we can do so moving forward. We have the support structures in place to continue our mission into our 20th year (in 2019) and beyond. When our sole delivery van was rendered un-drivable by a hit and run driver in 2016, we rented a van that morning and made our deliveries - we found a way. When our workspace was rendered unusable due to required renovations, we moved to another church who let us use their space for a time - we found a way. Recently, when one of the refrigerators we use to maintain the food we distribute correctly went out, we were able to find a location to preserve the food until the $1,400.00 repair was made - we found a way. At the end of our day, it is truly the support of the donors who understand what we do and help us by providing the funds we need for things as mundane as the daily supplies, keep gas in the delivery van - or fixing the refrigerator. And we have been fortunate to have that!

We have one program and we will know whether or not we are a success by how well we execute our mission statement - which is: To provide home delivery of free bags of wholesome groceries to low-income seniors residing in apartments throughout San Francisco, CA so that they can use what little money they have to stay healthy and engaged in their communities. Although our reach is limited due to the part time nature of what we do - we know if we are making progress if we continue to deliver over 1000 bags of groceries to our recipients week in and week out. In my four years of involvement with our organization as Program Director - we have never missed a scheduled delivery. If we continue to do that - I would consider it progress!

Our organization was built by our late founder, John Meehan. A gentleman who underwent a difficult childhood which included periods of food deprivation based on financial constraints. He moved to San Francisco in the late 1960's and got on the wrong side of the law in a petty theft situation. In jail for a short period of time, he vowed that when he got out he would do something good - and he did. He graduated from SF State and in 1983 he founder the precursor to Groceries for Seniors - "the Haight Ashbury Soup Kitchen". That organization morphed into the home delivery model of Groceries for Seniors in 1999. John, most unfortunately, died in 2013 and the organization staggered for a bit, but our current program director came on board in 2014 and we have been meeting our goals throughout those challenges What's next for us, after achieving our 20th year of service in 2019 - - with your support, 20 more years!