As published in the San Francisco Chronicle today, March 12, 2025 by GLIDE’s President & CEO, Dr. Gina Fromer.
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Each week, as president and CEO of the San Francisco social justice nonprofit Glide, I walk past the lines of people who wait for our free meal program. Those lines typically extend a city block.
They’re about to get longer.
Budget proposals by Republicans in Congress could reduce the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by 20%. These cuts threaten all the people who consider this city their sanctuary. If San Francisco wants to be a safe place for the marginalized populations who call this city their home and others who seek refuge here in increasingly uncertain times, food security must be a top priority.
And we have to start now, before any SNAP cuts hit. Planning will take time and it’s a crime to let any child go hungry.
Solving hunger is foundational to solving poverty. For everyone who has never gone hungry, I have an urgent, vital reminder: When you’re hungry, it’s harder to get a job, go to classes, take care of your kids — harder to do just about anything. How can you transform your life and reach for the American Dream on an empty stomach?
We must do better.
Long before I took my current position, I was a young mother who looked to Glide for help at a couple of down points in my life. Glide treated me with dignity and helped me see that providing food isn’t charity work — it’s justice work.
When we feed hungry families, those families become partners in the struggle to make a better city for us all. Food is the universal language in a city that’s rich with so many cultures.
It’s also a doorway.
People come for the food and stay for a community of life-transforming care. People who come for a meal can also find rental assistance to prevent their eviction, enroll in recovery programs or receive services to support well-being. Their journey to a new life begins with a few simple words: “We’re serving fried chicken today.”
The San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Biennial Food Security and Equity Report revealed that food insecurity rates among people in city programs are up 83%, and this public health crisis will only worsen with the expected cuts to SNAP.
San Francisco’s elected officials, nonprofit leaders and regular citizens must prioritize picking up the slack.
Demand for our meals at Glide dining room in the Tenderloin was up 7% this past year, and increasingly we are serving families, older adults, disabled people and hard-working ordinary people who just can’t afford that second or third meal of the day. Buying food often competes with fulfilling basic housing needs or paying sky-high rents.
The Tenderloin is home to 3,500 children (which makes it the neighborhood with the highest density of children in San Francisco), but it doesn’t have a single full-access grocery store. As of September 2024, over 106,000 people in San Francisco received CalFresh, the state food assistance program, but they still struggled to get all the nutrition they needed. Children and older people make up nearly 60% of CalFresh recipients in San Francisco. Uncertainty over the future of these benefits has never been higher.
The same innovative energy used by city officials to address the fentanyl emergency should be used to address the food access emergency that SNAP cuts will cause. Legislation that expedites city access to philanthropic dollars and improves cooperation between city departments and outside partners is something to pursue now. That way, we’ll be prepared before the shortfall hits.
Should San Francisco leaders pursue a food access emergency ordinance, the recommendations of the city’s Food Security Task Force will be invaluable: It already has studied ways to reduce silos and streamline referrals. It also recommends relying on the leadership of people with lived experience of food insecurity.
Those of us who understand what it feels like to be hungry see things a little differently.
Over the years, Glide has advocated for an emergency food system, immigrant food access and more CalFresh benefits. We have made progress by successfully advocating for free breakfast and lunch for all children in California’s public schools, greater access to fresh produce, farmers markets, summer meals programs and funding for San Francisco food programs.
Elected officials can start partnering now with nonprofit and community programs to create a centralized, long-term, citywide food plan so all our anti-hunger funding is targeted and coordinated. This food plan should focus on reaching high poverty areas with culturally appropriate foods.
Regular citizens can help by donating or volunteering at any organization that feeds low-income people.
You can also write or call your representatives asking them to oppose cuts to SNAP and support the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program, which reimburses childcare and adult daycare centers for food costs.
I hope all of us are up to the challenge of keeping San Francisco fed.
Dr. Gina Fromer, President & CEO of the Glide Foundation
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Take action today by writing your leaders!
Ask them to oppose cuts to SNAP and support the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program, which reimburses childcare and adult daycare centers for food costs.