Providing Thanksgiving Meals during Isolation
The YMCA of San Francisco will take part in multiple food giveaways this holiday season throughout the Bay Area. Our various food programs are in collaboration with organizations, community members, and local government programs within branch districts. This is a collective effort to reach the communities in need as the city places restrictions on businesses to stop the spread of COVID-19.
One of the main collaborations is our partnership with Chinese Cultural Services Center (CCSC) that will provide hundreds of hot meals this Thanksgiving. CCSC will make the meals and deliver food to our selected branches. Programs within our branches will distribute these meals to prioritize seniors, SRO families, and case management clients throughout the week.
The YMCA of San Francisco intends to make the holidays a little brighter for isolated seniors and families that need the support during this second shutdown.
The following are the branches that will offer food programs for the holiday. Some of these programs require preregistration. Learn more https://www.ymcasf.org/food-pantries:
Bayview YMCA
The Bayview Y African American Holistic Wellness department will distribute fully cooked Thanksgiving meals and more to the Active Older Adult (AOA) and Community families throughout the District 10 area and Western Addition with the help of volunteers. These AOA and Community families suffered major trauma and financial downfalls during this COVID time. The support of a fully cooked Thanksgiving feast hand delivered is an act of hope and healing in our community.
This food distribution is in collaboration with the SF Marin Food Bank and with the following programs: Family Resource Center (Funded by First 5), Burton High School PACE program (Funded by DCYF and SFUSD), MLK Beacon (Funded by DCYF Beacon Initiatve) and our Sports Dept (Funded by DCYF).
Chinatown YMCA
The Chinatown YMCA is partnering with Chinese Cultural Services Center (CCSC) to provide Thanksgiving meals to 60 seniors in the Chinatown area. Participants with CCSC, under their culinary training program, will make the meals and provided to participants in the Chinatown YMCA’s SRO Family Support Program and Service Connection program.
These hot Thanksgiving meal boxes are prepared and packaged by the culinary instructor and graduate students of CCSC Culinary Program. This program is made possible by support from the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Department and the Chinatown Community. Each year CCSC helps and caters to different organizations for their Thanksgiving celebration.
Mission YMCA
The Mission YMCA will provide warm Thanksgiving meals for over 40 seniors. Mission staff will serve warm meals on Wednesday, November 25th.
Richmond District YMCA
Tony was really concerned about our seniors who may celebrate Thanksgiving by themselves or won’t be able to see their families this year. By leveraging his relationships with One Richmond and the Park Presidio-Sunset Lion’s Club, he has helped to organize the delivery of Thanksgiving meals to Richmond District community members. The Lion’s Club will purchase Thanksgiving lunches from Angelina’s Deli-Cafe that will deliver to seniors on November 24th.
Stonestown Family YMCA
The Stonestown Family YMCA is also partnering with Chinese Cultural Services Center (CCSC) to provide Thanksgiving meals to seniors. On Friday, November 20th, 2020 from 1:00pm-3:00pm the AOA programs staff from the Stonestown YMCA will distribute the meals and handle drop-off to those who cannot pick up. In addition, each senior receiving a meal will receive a special Thanksgiving card colored by our youth attending the Stonestown Family YMCA Community Hub or Scholar Camp.
If you would like to learn more about obtaining food this holiday season or any time, please visit our website to locate the food pantries at Ymca locations https://www.ymcasf.org/food-pantries
Happy Holidays!
From the YMCA of San Francisco
*There are so many organizations and people we work with. Their collaboration and collective efforts with us do not go unnoticed. We hope we’ve given them a proper thank you and hope we did not miss anyone. Please contact us at info@ymcasf.org and we will update this post.