This is not one of the aforepromised heavy posts, but will likely be of interest to some of the San Franciscans who read this blog. I’ve been getting involved in some political/social volunteer work that I haven’t mentioned, really, in this blog as I haven’t wanted others I’m working with to worry about whether or not I’ll write about any particular event. However, I don’t think the below could be considered objectionable.

On Wednesday, I had the very unusual experience of sitting across the table from Leo O’Farrell at a meeting of the San Francisco Food Security Task Force. Unusual, as Leo is the director of Food Stamps programs in San Francisco, and I was scheduled to interview for Food Stamps the following day, and had only come to this meeting on the invitation of an activist with whom I frequently volunteer. It took me a long time to get up the courage to walk down to the Food Stamps office and apply. Though I was making very little money for important work that I couldn’t just abandon, I didn’t feel like I deserved Food Stamps — I had grown up middle class and had gone to college — I ought to be doing better for myself. And along with guilt, also pride: I could take care of myself; I didn’t need help. Food Stamps are, in addition, a very public kind of poverty. I could see myself paying for bulk items at Rainbow Grocery, where I know nobody, but how would I feel admitting poverty in every purchase from the vendors at the farmers’ market whom I see twice weekly, and half of whom I know by name? (More disturbingly, I’d like to think that I’m a person who does not pass economic judgement, but if I think these things about myself, is it really possible that these thoughts do not influence my dealings with others?)

Though I qualified for Food Stamps, I also managed to qualify, shortly after my initial application at the Food Stamps office, for a job, and I ended up cancelling my Food Stamps interview. I was not — am not — alone in avoiding aid of which I could have taken advantage. In fact, like me, 64% of those qualifying for nutritional aid in this city never enrol in the program. This was one of many, many interesting morsels about food in San Francisco that Leo and I were treated to through a report covered at the Food Security Task Force meeting. The San Francisco Food Alliance has released the 2005 San Francisco Collaborative Food System Assessment (PDF, 3.3 MB) — a broad report which covers every aspect of the food system (production, distribution, consumption, and recycling) from school gardens to post-consumption compost. If you live in San Francisco, the report is worth reading from cover to cover — it’s only eighty pages, and there are some awesome graphical representations of the city’s food system. A lot of the data merits greater political and social commentary, but the accessibility of the data alone makes this report a great contribution.

It’s difficult to exaggerate how important food and shelter are to social relations in this city. If you’re a San Franciscan who cares about San Francisco (or an elsewherian who wants to see what a broad overview of a city’s food system might look like), the Collaborative Food System Assessment is decidedly worth checking out.

This entry was posted on Saturday, 3 December 2005 at 21:08 and is filed under San Francisco Streets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.