THE FOOD PANTRY

Sara Miles is the founder and director of The Food Pantry, launched in 2000, which offers free, fresh groceries to 400 families each Friday, right around the altar at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco.

At The Food Pantry, we believe in building community by empowering people to work together and share food with neighbors.  

The Food Pantry’s short on bureaucracy: we don’t ask hungry people to fill out forms or prove that they’re “deserving.” We’re strong on participation: most of our volunteers are folks who came to get food and stayed to  feed others.

The Food Pantry welcomes everyone to the table––disabled workers, retired grandparents, homeless gay teenagers, middle-aged cleaning ladies, long-time San Franciscans and new immigrant families from all over the world––and we invite everyone to pitch in.

Our volunteers speak a dozen different languages. Some are young and strong, some old and sick; some live in houses and some on the streets.  But at The Food Pantry, every Friday, we share the privilege of doing meaningful work together, and feeding our community.