Community Programs

The SF Market leverages our scale and unique industry position to support a healthier, sustainable, and fair food system.

Alongside the successful operation and development of The SF Market as a vibrant, thriving, sustainable food center, we leverage our position in the food system to do good through our community programs. Through our programs, The SF Market expands access to healthy food while lifting up local food economies.

If you are interested in getting involved as a volunteer, please get in touch with Sara Draper-Zivetz, Program Manager, sdraper-zivetz@thesfmarket.org.

The SF Market Food Recovery Program

The SF Market’s award-winning Food Recovery Program works with 15 of the independent merchant businesses on the Market to connect their surplus food with local community organizations. Each day the program provides Bay Area neighbors with fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, and prepared meals increasing access to healthy food throughout our region.

Food recovery is also an important tool in mitigating the climate change impacts of our food system. When food is thrown away, the resources used to grow that food are also wasted. Food recovery makes sure good food gets eaten.  Food recovery supports our merchant businesses too. These family-owned businesses operate on narrow margins and food recovery saves them money on waste disposal fees and frees up valuable space in their warehouses.

Food is Medicine CV-19 Emergency Response Program

We have been incredibly inspired by the people we see going above and beyond to help each other during this challenging time, and we are grateful to be working side by side with dedicated community groups to help feed San Franciscans. When food insecurity became increasingly urgent as a result of COVID-19, the San Francisco Department of Public Health quickly responded to support The SF Market's "Food is Medicine CV-19 Emergency Response Program" with Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax Funds through June. This support gave community groups on the ground the resources to quickly and effectively serve the needs of thousands of San Franciscans. Due to the compelling success of the program, The SF Market was selected by the Crankstart Foundation for a generous grant to continue this work through the end of the year!

This important partnership with Crankstart Foundation will support The SF Market in leveraging our infrastructure and resources, along with our merchant businesses and multiple San Francisco nonprofits, to provide thousands of meals and grocery bags containing fresh produce and staples to under-resourced San Francisco residents.

The “Food is Medicine” program aligns with our mission to provide a platform for growth for our merchants, including securing local jobs and business, and making a positive impact on the community.

By the end of 2020, the Food is Medicine CV-19 Emergency Response Program will provide:

• 75,000 bags of healthy, culturally appropriate food (60,000 of which Crankstart Foundation is making possible)

• 200,000 meals made by churches, restaurants, and culinary training programs to serve to their communities (150,000 of which Crankstart Foundation is making possible)

The SF Market is grateful to our generous partners in this effort: 3rd Street Youth Center & Clinic, WISE Health, NOW Hunters Point, Bayview Senior Services, Florence Fang Asian Community Garden, SF New Deal, La Raza Community Resource Center, Resident Council Tenant Association, Double Rock Baptist Church, Third Baptist Church San Francisco, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital 5M Clinic, Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco (ECS), Carecen SF, Farming Hope, Homeless Prenatal Program and Jelani House, HOMEY, The Women's Building of San Francisco, Health RIGHT 360, Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, Southeast Health Center, and SisterWeb.

And thank you to our participating merchant businesses: Arcadio's Produce, Berti Produce, Earl's Organic Produce, Great West Produce Company, Inc., New City Fruit & Produce, Shasta Produce, Stanley Produce Co Inc, S & L Produce, Inc., Mercado Latino, Gus's Community Markets, Washington Vegetable Company, What a Tomato

Each day we connect surplus healthy food to communities throughout the Bay Area through our Food Recovery Program.

The Food Recovery Program works with 16 of the independent merchant businesses on the Market to connect their surplus food with local community organizations. Each day the food recovery program connects our Bay Area neighbors with fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, and prepared meals increasing access to healthy food throughout our region.

Food recovery is an important part of reducing the environmental impact of the food system. When food is thrown away, the resources used to grow that food are also wasted. Food recovery makes sure good food gets eaten.  Food recovery supports our merchant businesses too. These family-owned businesses operate on narrow margins and food recovery saves them money on waste disposal fees and frees up valuable space in their warehouses.

Food Recovery by the Numbers

Our impacts since we started the program in August 2016.

Food Recovery Community Partners 

Third Baptist Church San Francisco; 3rd Street Youth Center & Clinic; Alameda County Community Food Bank; Alameda Food Bank; Bayview Senior Services; San Francisco City Impact; Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals (CMPC); Daily Bowl; Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco (ECS); Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano; Florence Fang Community Farm; Food Runners SF; Food Shift; Fraternite Notre Dame; Free the Need; Gazzali's Supermarket; Homeless Prenatal Program; H.O.M.E.Y.; Hunters Point Resident Council Tenant Association (RCTA); Ida B. Wells High School; Heat of The Kitchen Culinary Training Program; La Raza Community Resource Center; Leah's Pantry; Little Sisters of the Poor - United States; Mission Meals Coalition Community Fridge; Mission Food Hub; San Francisco African American Faith-based Coalition; San Francisco-Marin Food Bank; Mother Brown’s Dining Room; SF DPH Pop-Up Testing Sites and Food Pharmacies; Second Harvest of Silicon Valley; St. Timothy; Turn On To America (TOTA); and WISE Health.

Food Recovery Merchant Partners 

Arcadios Produce Inc, Berti Produce, Cook's Produce, Earl's Organic Produce, Good Eggs, Great West Gourmet, GrubMarket, New City Produce, North Bay Produce, Payless Markets, S & L Produce, Inc., Shasta Produce, Stanley Produce Co Inc, VegiWorks, Washington Vegetable Company, What a Tomato

Food Recovery Funders

The SF Market Food Recovery Program is generously funded by the Bothin Foundation, Crankstart Foundation, the Clif Family Foundation, the SFDPH Sugary Drinks Distributors Tax Funds; the SF Environment Zero Waste Grant Program, and the General Mills Foundation.

Market Tours: Building Connections for a
Fair Food System

The Educational Tour Program introduces community members to the role the market plays in the regional food economy and share the unique context of the early morning produce hub. Our visitors include culinary students, workforce development organizations, and other groups who would benefit from the opportunities available at The SF Market. The Local Farmer Program, one of our newest initiatives, brings small-scale regional farmers to The SF Market for network building tours with potential buyers: our merchants. Growing connections for buyers is critical for small farmers building their businesses. We customize tours for each farmer group connecting them to the relevant merchant buyers on the Market.

Food is Medicine: Our Partnership with The Food Pharmacy

San Francisco Food as Medicine Collaborative hosts a weekly Food Pharmacy at the The Southeast Health Center clinic. The Food Pharmacy is a free food market where patients shop for healthy food, learn how to prepare food that supports their medical care, check their blood pressure, and receive nutrition education in a warm, friendly environment. The SF Market partners with Food Pharmacies to provide nutritionally dense California-grown organic fruits, vegetables, and nuts from Market merchants. We began this program at the Southeast Health Center and are now expanding to provide produce for the Bayview Hunters Point Clinic and the 3rd Street Youth Center and Clinic.

Being a Good Neighbor

The SF Market has a long track record for being a good neighbor. Years before  we became a 501c3 in 2013, the Market was an active community leader in the Bayview-Hunters Point  and a supporter of Healthy Retail efforts. 

Today we continue this work by offering specialized tours for Healthy Retail SF store owners and regularly donating healthy produce for community events located in our Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood as a part of our larger efforts to  increase access to healthy produce. The SF Market staff also play an active role in coalitions working together to increase access to healthy food in San Francisco including, Healthy SouthEast, Healthy Retail SF program, and San Francisco’s Food Security Taskforce.

To request a donation, please download this form and follow the instructions.

Sustainability at The SF Market

 The SF Market leverages our position in the food system to scale sustainable impact. We were partners in the City of San Francisco’s pilot program for municipal composting in 1997, and we have been composting inedible produce ever since. We work daily to reduce the amount of food that needs to be composted through our Food Recovery Program, where we connect surplus edible food to community organizations around the Bay Area. Since formally starting the program in 2016, we’ve donated over 2.5 million pounds of food. We collect hard-to-recycle materials like plastic shrink wrap from merchants and implement systems to recycle or re-purpose these materials that wouldn’t be feasible on the scale of individual businesses. Together we work to make our corner of the food system more efficient and sustainable.