Lazy Days of Summer

"How much is that sweatshirt in the window," asked the shivering, tank-topped lady from Iowa while waiting for the cable car at Union Square. "No one told me it would be so cold here." Welcome to summer in San Francisco. It's cold. It's gray. It's windy. All summer long. But not at Food Runners where great summer events keep things hot, hot, hot.

"You mean "BEER" Fest, right?" That's what everyone says.  No.  It's "BREAST" Fest.  Fer real.  It IS a beer festival, but it's all about helping the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic, a state licensed non-profit clinic offering alternative medical treatments for low-income women diagnosed with breast cancer. It's a wonderful party and Food Runners will be on hand at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion the night of July 12th to pick up Breast Fest's excess food.

Breast Fest @ Fort Mason Festival Pavillion

Food Runners will be back at Fort Mason the first weekend in August to pick up the delectables leftover from Eat Drink SF, San Francisco’s annual food, wine and spirits festival (formerly known as SF Chefs). Imagine the homeless women resting on their pallets-for-a-night at A Woman's Place feasting on lobster rolls at midnight as the fog horns moan over the bay.  That's the kind of music this epic foodie festival and will Food Runners make together.

The music continues when, by noon on August 8th, throngs of people will stream into Golden Gate Park. Over amped strains of rock n' roll will shatter the relative peace of the neighborhoods west of Crossover Drive.  Outside Lands 2014 will be underway. Three loud, crowded days of it.  An average of 60,000 concert goers are expected to attend each day. That's a lot of people in need of food. Food that will be supplied by vendors like Escape from New York Pizza, 4505 Meats, DeLessio Market & Bakery and many, many more. In addition, the festival's artists and tech crew of over 150 require three full meals daily which will be catered to perfection by Chef's Touch Catering. All put together,  there will be mountains of food likely to generate mountains of leftovers; all to be picked up by Food Runners.  It's a big operation involving all kinds of security measures, expert coordination and complicated logistics on the part of the festival staff who are excited be to be partnering with Food Runners for the fourth year in a row.

Picking up the  donations at Outside Lands

On the other side of town...  the very next weekend...  Food Runners volunteers will be on scene at the close of La Cocina's fifth annual Street Food Festival. This event once again promises excellent donations from the many vendors participating. Last year's donations totaled three vans full of fantastic food.  Eager volunteers happily picked up the donations for delivery to agencies serving those in need including HCHS Mother Brown's Dining Room, Fraternite Notre Dame, Martin DePorres, City Team and more. 

One van load of La Cocina Street Food Festival donations, 2013

Get out your parkas and rub your cold hands together for another amazing San Francisco summer of food.  If you know of events where food plays a part, call Food Runners. 415-929-1866.  Food Runners will make sure that excess food from this summer's events stays out of the compost bin and gets to people who need it most. Food Runners is a simple way to warm up San Francisco's famously frigid "fog days of summer."