Berkeley Food Pantry feeds the hungry on a soft footprint - East Bay Times

Berkeley Food Pantry feeds the hungry on a soft footprint - East Bay Times

BERKELEY — If, to paraphrase Scripture, to save a life is to save the world, the Berkeley Food Pantry tries to live that lesson literally.

Here they measure success not only in the number of people they feed but also by how much food they keep from entering into the waste stream to decompose into greenhouse gases.

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Operating out of two rooms at the Berkeley Friends Church, Berkeley Food Pantry, at Sacramento and Cedar streets, feeds some 2,000 people a month, or about 700 to 800 households, said director Sara Webber. Also important, added manager Amy St. George, is that over the past year, “we saved close to 500,000 pounds of food that would have gone to waste at the store.”

On a recent Wednesday, a cornucopia spread out on a table included brussels sprouts, broccoli, tuscan kale, swiss chard and other, mostly organic, greens; potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplants, turnips, avocados, radishes, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes; pineapples, bananas, oranges, apples and a few boxes of raspberries and strawberries.

“Can you believe that produce table?” said volunteer Rod Maslowski. “It’s like going to Whole Foods.”

In fact, Whole Foods Market is a source of a lot of the produce that gets picked up regularly by the pantry’s seven “grocery rescue drivers.” Other contributors are Target, Berkeley Natural Grocery, the Kensington farmers market, Franklin Bros. Market, Hodo Soy and Olson’s Farm in Petaluma.

Also on display were some ready-to-eat meals from meal-delivery service Thistle, such as squash and greens quinoa pasta with salt-and-pepper chicken and parsley-basil pecan pesto, and crunchy mixed veggie sorghum bowl with ground pork and carrot-sherry vinaigrette.

“The stores are elated,” St. George said. “They save on dumping, and they get a tax break.”

Berkeley Food Pantry has received funding this year from Share the Spirit, an annual holiday campaign to benefit needy residents in the East Bay. The grant is administered by the Contra Costa Crisis Center, and donations support programs of 40 nonprofit agencies in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

BFP also purchases food from the Alameda County Community Food Bank and receives canned and dry goods from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, bread from local bakeries, other food donated by the Berkeley Neighborhood Food Project and fruit gleaned from neighborhood trees.

A year ago, BFP paved what used to be a dust-prone, dirt surface outside its quarters, with the help of a grant from StopWaste.org. The area is now lined with benches and plants, a place for clients to sit and chat while they wait — and sometimes, listen to lectures about nutrition.

“It’s real comfortable,” said client Felicita Figueroa of Berkeley, 61, as she waited on a bench outside on a sunny mid-November day. “You can sit in the shade or the sun.”

Figueroa is the head of a household that includes herself and four kids, 13, 8, 5 and 3 months. Some of them like vegetables, others prefer peanut butter, but she always finds something at Berkeley Food Pantry to please each one.

“My money goes only as far as the bills,” said Figueroa, who is disabled. “I spend most of my time going to the doctor. I struggle to get meals on the table. It’s hard.”

She called the pantry “a real help to the community. There are so many people who are in need.”

Staffed by 44 volunteers and two half-time employees in Webber and St. George, the pantry operates on a budget of about $90,000 a year, more than half of it donations from individuals and faith-based organizations.

When clients’ names are called, they step inside and consult with their “personal shopper,” a volunteer who fills up the clients’ bags with their choices from the ample selection.

To say the clients come from all walks of life would almost be an understatement. They include lifetime Berkeley residents as well as refugees from Pakistan and Somalia, a former translator from Afghanistan, some students, and, increasingly, older people, including many elderly professionals.

Among the clients on a recent Wednesday was Sonya Rodolfo, 84, of Berkeley, who has a master’s degree in biology and got a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology while raising four kids mostly alone. Rodolfo’s fortunes took many a downward turn, including the death of her husband at age 40 and, some years later, a shooting that left her daughter, now deceased, a quadriplegic.

“I am the billiard ball that was hit by the cue stick many times, and bounced all over the table,” said Rodolfo, a native of the Philippines who came to the United States with her husband, a Fulbright scholar, in 1968.

Today, Rodolfo lives with her son, “barely making it” on her Social Security income and a pension from Iowa State University, where she used to teach.

The pantry has added a reading corner with donated books and toys to ease the wait for clients’ children. On the walls, there is donated artwork.

It all is part of what St. George said is a dignity- and respect-based “community of caring” — and a vertically integrated one. Tier 1 includes the wholesalers and retailers; Tier 2, the pantry; Tier 3, the clients; Tier 4, food so past its prime that the pantry can no longer give it to its human clients. So some of it goes to urban farmers to feed chickens and goats, and a very small rest into the compost bin.

“We’re part of this really cool cycle,” St. George said. “We’re really proud of that.”

Berkeley Food Pantry used to spend about $400 a month on bags for packing clients’ food, but no longer.

“We needed to change the culture,” St. George said. “People bring their own bags to grocery stores, and we asked ourselves, ‘Why can’t this happen here?’ So we made an announcement (for people to bring their own bags), and before you knew it, it became part of the culture.”

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SHARE THE SPIRIT

The Share the Spirit campaign, sponsored by the Bay Area News Group, benefits needy residents of Alameda and Contra Costa counties by funding nonprofit holiday and outreach programs.

To make a tax-deductible contribution, clip the coupon accompanying this story or go to http://ift.tt/2hsVPKV

Readers with questions, and individuals or businesses interested in making large contributions, may contact the Contra Costa Crisis Center, which administers the fund, at 925-939-1916, ext. 408, or sharethespirit@crisis-center.org.

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