Rabbi Sydney Mintz doesn’t have to look far from San Francisco’s stately Congregation Emanu-El to detect signs of hunger.
She sees the homeless on nearby Clement Street and Geary Boulevard. And across the street, a food pantry operated by St. John’s Presbyterian Church draws a crowd every Saturday.
“There are a lot of people who are food poor,” said Mintz, whose congregants soon will respond in a new way to that need in their midst.
Starting early next year, members of the Reform congregation plan to distribute free groceries from a rented storefront at nearby Second Avenue and Geary Boulevard.
The Emanu-El pantry will become the 29th free grocery outlet operated in partnership with the San Francisco Food Bank — and the first in San Francisco sponsored by a local synagogue.
“We’re very excited about that and hope it’s not the last,” said Sean Brooks, program director at the food bank, which supplies many of the groceries to the independently run pantries. The first pantries operated through the food bank’s Neighborhood Grocery Network opened their doors three years ago.
While many synagogues regularly collect food for the homeless and prepare and distribute meals to the needy, local pantries until now have been run by Christian churches or social service agencies like the Salvation Army.
Because of security concerns, including the need to ensure the safety of youngsters in preschool and religious-school programs, Mintz said Emanu-El officials decided against opening a pantry on site.
Finding an available spot within walking distance took some time, said Mintz, whose congregation will take possession in January of a former salon space with a one-year lease.
If all goes as planned, the pantry will open its doors in early February after being spruced up and fitted with shelves.
At first, the pantry will distribute food on Sundays to about 100 neighbors. Ultimately, Mintz hopes to make the pantry a twice-weekly operation, capable of serving 200 needy people.
“I think this is the kind of project where people get on board very quickly,” said Mintz, who noted that the pantry already had received a “very substantial gift” from an enthusiastic congregant. “It’s such a wonderful direct service to the community that people really want to be involved.”
The pantry will serve those who simply show up for groceries and indicate that they live nearby. Mintz hopes to stock the store with nonperishables like cereal, peanut butter, rice and grains, along with bread, fresh produce and hopefully, occasional supplies of meat and chicken.
“This is really supplementing things,” said Mintz. “This is for people who already have food, [but] they can’t sustain themselves for seven days a week.”
Emanu-El volunteers will select groceries from the food bank and purchase them at nominal costs, averaging 6 cents a pound. Mintz hopes to provide each client with up to 25 or 30 pounds of food per visit.
“There’s a very high demand for food” in the Richmond District as well as the city as a whole, Mintz said.
She said when she asked food bank representatives about that demand in the Emanu-El neighborhood, the response was: “You could open up three days, there will be a line.”
Daniela Kirshenbaum, who chairs the congregation’s social action committee, said the need isn’t always visible. “We have people who don’t look hungry. People manage to keep up with their appearances for quite awhile.”
She anticipates plenty of volunteer support for the pantry, including religious-school students, young adults and sisterhood members. Even preschoolers are expected to get in the act, providing handmade artwork to decorate the site.
While the congregation doesn’t plan to kasher the pantry, “we’re not going to serve up ham hocks,” Mintz said.
She hopes to provide homemade Jewish foods to Jewish clients, noting that some of the needy may be emigres from the former Soviet Union. “We’re going to try to do things around the holidays,” she said, mentioning the possibility of supplying challah and candles.
The food bank’s Brooks said many of the area’s needy are Russian and Asian immigrants, many of whom are elderly.
Coupled with the existing pantry at St. John’s church, “this is going to, I imagine, provide one of the better levels of support for a neighborhood once Emanu-El opens,” he said.
Emanu-El already helps out by preparing meals for a winter shelter program operated through an interfaith group. Congregants also prepare meals for fellow members with new babies or experiencing illness or a death in the family.
While Emanu-El may be opening the first pantry, many Bay Area synagogues participate in programs to alleviate hunger, from volunteering at homeless shelters and soup kitchens to sponsoring food drives and cooking free meals.