Food Bank to Table.

From France to California, families and individuals turn to food banks and meal programs to feed themselves during the pandemic.

The Secours Populaire of Poissy

Emilie Rappeneau

This graph is a visual representation of the information gathered by the Secours Populaire for their 2020 annual study on the perception of poverty by French citizens. The study, dating back from September 2020, questioned 1002 randomly selected participants (which formed a sample representative of the French population older than 16) on how the Covid-19 crisis had affected their vision of precarity. One of the main findings of the study was that 40% of the respondents restricted the quality of their diet due to financial constraints potentially brought about by the pandemic. This number rose to 64% when concerning respondents with a monthly income below 1200 euros. This graph shows which percentage of respondents answered positively when asked if they either restricted the quantity or quality of the food they eat or skipped meals, due to budget constraints.

Food restrictions in France in 2020
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About the documentary

“All that is human is ours.” Secours Populaire motto. Poissy is a small French town, forty minutes away from Paris by train. The Secours Populaire is a French non-profit organization, who since 1945 has strived to bring material, moral, cultural and medical support to victims of social injustice, natural catastrophes, war, hunger and poverty. Of its more than 80 000 volunteers, a dozen have created a local bureau in Poissy, and organize weekly food and clothing donations as well as activities for children in need, from homework assistance to small holiday trips. In March 2020, the local committees of the Secours Populaire were forced to close due to the pandemic, and volunteers in Poissy rallied around urgent food drives. Now, they operate outside, with a limited number of volunteers to assist the thousand of beneficiaries enlisted. This short documentary aims to show how, in the midst of a pandemic, the food distributed by Poissy’s volunteers are put to use by beneficiaries: from the food bank to the Apparthotel table, experience small-town French solidarity with us.

The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano

Sean Watkins

The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano helps within the community to serve food to those in need. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a massive increase in demand at the distribution locations.

Weekly drive-thru distribution locations are provided by the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano to safely serve those in need.

“We anticipate that this need will last a lot longer after the pandemic. Volunteers are absolutely essential to what we do, we cannot do this without the volunteers." -Patrick Hazelrigg

Data visualization: Food insecurity rates in Bay Area counties in 2020

Feed+Fuel Chinatown, San Francisco

Garrett Isley

Feed + Fuel Chinatown

Chinatown houses some of the most vulnerable communities in San Francisco.

According to a 2015 SRO census report, almost 460 families in Chinatown live in single-room occupancies with 51% of those families consisting of four or more members.

Feed+Fuel is a community feeding program created by the Chinatown Community Development Center in partnership with SF New Deal. It's aim is to reduce the risks of the pandemic and ensure the health of Chinatown residents by minimizing the use of shared SRO kitchens while mitigating rising food insecurity rates stemming from the pandemic in this community.

Families in SRO Housing in San Francisco
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Richmond Community: It takes a village

Caurraine Titus

Richmond Neighborhood Center Food Bank

The COVID-19 pandemic stripped millions of people all across the world of their loved ones, homes, jobs, and resource/financial security. Despite this year long adversity, The Richmond Neighborhood Center did not allow the pandemic to prevent them from providing for their community.

This documentary aims to display the hard work and dedication of the great volunteers and workers of this food bank, while also highlighting how the pandemic has caused participants of the food bank to rely on the Richmond Neighborhood Center more than ever before. how the pandemic has caused participants of the food bank to rely on the Richmond Neighborhood Center more than ever before.

Food Insecurity in the U.S.
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