Fresh produce, meat, bread and grains were set up in a farmers market-style food pantry in Tiburon, as volunteers greeted folks who picked up their groceries for the week.
“This is really helpful,” said 25-year-old Toby Taylor, who lives in the Hilarita Apartments complex where the SF-Marin Food Bank food pantry is in operation. “You wouldn’t think that this would be here in Tiburon, but it goes to show that there are pockets everywhere where people need a little help.”
The pantry is the first in Tiburon for the SF-Marin Food Bank. Although residents of the apartment complex have been benefiting from the pantry for the past few months, it opened to the public last week.
The pantry hours are from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays.
“We at the food bank know, maybe other folks don’t know, but hunger exists in every community that you can imagine,” said Mark Seelig, spokesman for the nonprofit. “Here in Tiburon, people think that Tiburon is a very wealthy enclave of Marin County, but hunger exists everywhere.”
At the start, the food pantry served about 32 families that live at the apartment complex at 100 Ned’s Way off Tiburon Boulevard. The apartment building is a low-income residency operated by EAH Housing. Now the pantry also serves Mill Valley and Belvedere, too.
Seelig said that the pantry is for working families who are trying to make ends meet and people on fixed incomes who are seniors or might have disabilities.
“This is for people who are struggling to pay rent, to pay bills, so that they can get food, the nutrition that they need,” he said.
Taylor, who lives with and cares for his mother, said he is unemployed but looking for work. He said he gets bread, watermelons and meat from the pantry, which helps offset the cost of going to the grocery store weekly.
“It’s also a social thing,” he said. “This way we get to see our neighbors and talk.”
Gustav Helzberg is the resource coordinator for EAH Housing and helps manage the food pantry. He knew most of the visitors by name and welcomed them with a smile.
“We try to create a friendly environment,” he said. “We have everything set up so that the residents can take what they need.”
A dry erase board on the back wall displayed the day’s offerings and the maximum rations that each family could take, but in most cases, there has been plenty of food to go around, Helzberg said.
Edith Cadena, a senior program coordinator for SF-Marin Food Bank, said that the Tiburon pantry closes a big gap.
“If we didn’t have this here, people would have to go to San Rafael or Marin City,” she said. “And for people who don’t have reliable transportation, or have a mobile disability, that’s not easy.”
Sheryl Boucher, a 72-year-old Tam Valley resident, was happy to have the pantry open. She is retired on a fixed income, but for supplemental income, she works a part-time job helping elderly people run errands.
“I’m by myself,” she said. “Groceries are a big help. Rent goes up. I’m retired. I’m looking for ways to save money.”
In Marin, 46,648 people, or about 18 percent of the population, earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, according to the 2016 Census data.
SF-Marin Food Bank has 50 pantries in Marin and distributes about 5.9 million pounds of food a year. An average of 16,767 people received food each week in 2017 and 2018, according to the nonprofit.
More information is available at sfmfoodbank.org.
