Linda Murley & Nancy Hahn
Food Runners
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| Food Runners Bike Courier Josean H transporting tech company excess lunch for delivery. |
The tech company office is airy and bright. In the reception area, two leather chairs make wait time incurred feel like a trip to the spa. The clack of computer keys echoes through the large open style office. Welcome to the technosphere work world where all the comforts of home are at an employee’s fingertips; including lunch.
Steps away from these companies in San Francisco’s tech corridor are low-income housing units, shelters, halfway houses and a drop-in center run by two nuns. This is the dichotomy of have and have not in San Francisco.
Contributions from corporate cafeterias at Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Zynga result in donations to Food Runners every workday. Smaller firms like Udemy, Carta, Canvas and Minted, who serve catered meals on a daily basis, also donate their leftovers.
Steps away from these companies in San Francisco’s tech corridor are low-income housing units, shelters, halfway houses and a drop-in center run by two nuns. This is the dichotomy of have and have not in San Francisco.
Contributions from corporate cafeterias at Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Zynga result in donations to Food Runners every workday. Smaller firms like Udemy, Carta, Canvas and Minted, who serve catered meals on a daily basis, also donate their leftovers.
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| Food Runners van delivering sizable tech company donation. |
Food Runners is glad of the tech companies who donate their surplus food. Conscientious corporate cafeteria chefs take the time to incorporate Food Runners into their kitchen’s regular service routine. This means wrapping leftover food so it can be safely transported to programs serving those in need.
Some tech companies sponsor in-house community giving/team building events. Team members make lunches especially for donation to Food Runners. Twitter’s “Friday for Good” was held on May 17. Twitter employees made 2,500 bagged lunches for those in need. Ten Food Runners Volunteers and both of our part time van drivers relayed the lunches to low-income apartment buildings in SOMA, the Mission, the Western Addition and the Tenderloin.
Some tech companies sponsor in-house community giving/team building events. Team members make lunches especially for donation to Food Runners. Twitter’s “Friday for Good” was held on May 17. Twitter employees made 2,500 bagged lunches for those in need. Ten Food Runners Volunteers and both of our part time van drivers relayed the lunches to low-income apartment buildings in SOMA, the Mission, the Western Addition and the Tenderloin.
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| Long time Volunteer Rachel K picking Twitter "Friday for Good" lunches. |
Other programs benefitting from Twitter’s “Friday for Good” were Veteran’s Commons, a program housing formerly homeless veterans living with disabilities, and supported senior programs at Mission Terrace and Mary Helen Rodgers Community. Arnett Watson Apartments, supportive housing for families who are low income or homeless, also received donations of food. Getting food to who needs it the most is the mission of Food Runners.
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| Smaato employees making bag lunches for donation to Food Runners, November 6, 2018. |
Without Food Runners, hundreds of pounds of edible food leftover from tech company meals would end up in the compost. Instead, excess food becomes a healthy meal for San Francisco seniors, families, and children in need.
