I am a little nervous. They helped me through both ofpregnancies. When it comes to food, it is difficult to, you know, to survive in the city with my husband is the only one that works. I take care of my kids. We cannot apply for any help like they were showing on the slide. It is true over 20 we cannot for the eligibility we dont qualify. I try to get whatever i can with the program for food bags every week. Thank god there is emergency food bags in other places. Sometimes it is hard for me because i have both of my children and i cannot get on the bus as well with that. I have lost some opportunities of getting food boxes because i cannot get on the bus with both of them and my food. I have lost that. Sorry about that. With rent, too, hopefully you guys can help us out. Thank you. Supervisor mandelman thank you both. Next speaker. Good morning. I lead policy an and advocacy fr the San FranciscoMarin Food Bank. Thank you for calling this hearing today. This is deer to our house for 35 years. Thank you for elevating this with the board of supervisor. Thank you to paula for the incredible presentation. I am a member of the Food Security task force. The data is close to my heart. Thank you also to the previous speakers who shared their stories. I want to elevate the fact we could not do what we do without partners like homeless prenatal. They bring so much to the community and help us reach out beyond what we can do with our organization. We have in the past been able to innovate with other populations. We started college pant trees, start home delivered groceries. Calling attention is a great call of action to think about how to better serve these people. Thank you so much for your time. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, supervisors. I was comes to stand up here to let you know i was born in district five and raised in district 10 and raised my children i district 10. I live in district five. I was a child of a mother Food Insecurity. I will never forget the trauma of trying to see her survive in San Francisco and not make enough money. I will never forget what it was like to raise my children in district 10 trying to survive on the little subsistence i was provided until i was able to do better. I have worked with pregnant persons from 13 to 45. I have witnessed Food Insecurity, the trauma and stress of not being able to provide for your children. I am 44. It is time to make a change. It is time to invest in programs providing support to pregnant parents persons in the city to not only provide it in declarations but also funding. They need funding to be able to hire the people they need for the capacity to fill now because of the income inequality in the city. Thank you for raising this issue. It is very important that we address this because it does have an impact on the outcomes of your most vulnerable residents. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker. Hello. I am amanda. I am a mother of two. It has been extremely stressful, to say the least. I have no food. I would be in the position to not have enough money to buy food for my kids on top of everything else. In discussing with homeless prenatal we Found Solutions to be done. The main thing is being able to grow our own food. If we can come up with funding, i dont know what can be done, it would help with Mental Health as well. Not being able to provide for your children causes depression, anxiety and all of the above. I know as a mom i am going through those things i can only imagine those facing immigration and poverty and if we can get out and grow our own food that can cut some of the disparities, you know, having the opportunity to do for yourself. You can change that to help someone else. It is a giving back situation. I work for a nonprofit garden. I know how been official it can be. That is in the city of richmond. If it can come to the city of San Francisco in oakland, that would be a blessing. It is hard. It is very challenging to just get by. On top of the represent and everything else. Yes, please, figure out something to be done for our moms because it is hard. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. I am thompson. We are organizations for the visitation rally. We conduct focus groups with women and young ladies. I am emotional. As a participant in the Homeless Program they are the most Supportive Team i have been since i have been a mom. I have a one andahalfyearold son that was preterm due to no support and financial leap not having it to get by and grow him and my son having the resources and transportation to do so. I can just say i am glad this whole idea is being discussed. The services are needed. I volunteer at the food bank and hear about people not having enough food. The stuff is old, rotten, no good, this and that. People are given potatoes and no protein. I am anemic. I understand. Whatever helps that you can put in play and get support that we need, please do it. I am in sunnydale and you know we need the help. That is all i have to say. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker. Thank you, supervisors for holding this hearing today. I am with the interim executive director at first life San Francisco. I want to highlight the opportunity we have here in the early years. Research has been presented about Early Brain Development during the first 1,000 days and School Readiness and the impact hunger has and the lifelong ability to learn. I would encourage you as we think about this opportunity and we look to the Solutions Available to us, that you look to the systems that we already have in place. We have existing programs where families already are where they feel comfortable, safe, secure. Our cities, Family ResourceCenter Initiative currently administrators 1400 bags of food per week, approximately 64,000 food bags each year. What i want to say about what our Family Resource centers do. It is beyond the food they administer. They take this opportunity with families to bolster the familys overall wellbeing. They focus on parentchild relationships, they focus on helping provide families a pathway out of poverty. The Resource Centers understand it is truly about not a safety net but security for family ifs. I would just add this service is currently at capacity and unfunded. It relies on volunteers, on existing staff pulling extra hours, on Current Space that is at capacity and so as you look and think about solutions know we have more information about this, more research, more studies and we are eager to partner with you. Thank you. Commissioner walton congratt ions. What is the gap if you had an amount . If you could get that information . The amount what we are currently doing is an in kind service is between 300 and 400,000. It provides a little bit of cushion, but we know that many of these food pantries also have await list and the capacity we have is not enough. You can imagine beyond that would be critical to be able to reach the middle income families. It talked about eligibility requirements we reach the middle income families. Commissioner walton state funding is going down . Yes and first five is one of the major funders of Family Resource centers for 12 years. Supervisor stefani are you in touch with the Homeless Prenatal Program on this . Homeless prenatal is a strong funded Family Resource centers. Supervisor stefani in light of the barriers you heard today, if you can follow up with my office in terms what you think the Family Resource centers can be doing to help address the transportation issue. A lot of people may not be able to get to the Family Resource center. The gap supervisor walton talked about in terms of funding to let us know what we can do. There are many different programs that get to this issue. That information would be helpful to us. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker. Hello. I am the executive director of the founders for veggies. I also work for the center for vulnerable populations. We specialize in areas where there is limited access to healthy food and just when folks dont have enough money for food. In San Francisco we have an affordability crisis where housing eats first. Food costs are 23 higher than national average. We issue fruit and vegetable vouchers through the Community Organizations and clin hillary clinics. We absolutely have seen positive results from these programs improving Food Security, health but really we help drive the supply of fruits and vegetables to the neighborhood. I am surgin urging you to suppot market match at the farmers market. They work. They are very good. We have research that we also are looking at the fact that our Voucher Program can help decrease the risk of preterm birth. Huge outcomes for a small contribution. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. I am the omi Family ResourceCenter Director in District Eleven urban services ymca and proud native of district 10 born and raised. Our food pantry feeds 250 families per week. They are an essential part of the Food Security for the folks in the omi neighborhood. We know the Services Helps families to live and survive in San Francisco. We provide access to quality newspaper trish us food and it is fundamental to our existence. We are so important in addition to what has already been stated. With modest Additional Resources they could increase food to families in marginal situations. We work with immigrant families. The new rule will impact immigration eligibility. This should not be so. The one thing for sure. The clients come in, we may not understand each other due to language differences. One thing that is universal we all need to be fed and access to healthy food. I want to surge you to increase funding for families within San Francisco. It is not only the smart thing to do, it is our responsibility to make sure no one goes hungry in San Francisco. For the story, i understand that it is not always easy for families to afford our food. I was able to walk into our local liquor store because that is all we had in district 10, and i now know enough to bypass the chips and snacks for my kids. Best thing i could find were two juices for two of my children. Each bottle cost me 5. The capri sons were two for 1. Supervisor mandelman next speaker. Thank you for your attention and time to this matter. I am seth crawford, Branch Operation officer foss the y was officer for the ynca. We serve over 450 people at our food pantry. This is money that is not within the budget but money we feel is important for our community. There is a waiting list of over 200 families that we cannot get to because of capacity and because of lack of opportunity for funding to be able to get more food from the food bank to support these families. One comes in at 9 00 with single mother with three kids and we have emergency food drop in where she comes in every day to get food. We talk about how she sustains herself. Mother of three working parttime. The local corner store where she can buy the plastic bags of food that you warm up in the microwave are cheaper than going to mcdonalds to get food off the dollar menu. If we dont do something now we will see something in the future. Thank you for your time and encouragement. Supervisor mandelman next speaker. I am the director of family connections. We have two Family Resource centers. We serve 100 low income families each year. We dont have a food pantry. I am grateful for our partners. A lot of families spoke about the impact. It is not just food. Food is the baseline for family and economic success. You have the Resource Centers. There are 25 Family Resource centers. They are more accessible. We need to invest in this system that exists. Look at the people they serve. They live in the neighborhood of the people they serve. It is an amazing system. We dont need to create the wheeling. We need to make it better. I want to say in this Political Climate a lot of families dont feel safe going to neighborhood resources. It is not just the right thing but the smart thing to do and most economically sound thing to do for the city. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. Thank you for having me. I am the executive director of sister web. I stood before you guys about a year ago in city hall. We basically launched our program. We are a year in. I will tell you about my personal and professional experience with Food Insecurity. I am a single parent. I basically raised my daughter in an a low income environment. Depending on the food stamps or medical, it was a struggle. I was frustrated how simple things threw off my finances. I would not have enough to buy food. We had to make the best of whatever budget we had. It was never enough. The trauma it caused because of that. This led me to become the director of sister web. I work with families removed from my situation, and i want to make sure i bring before you to encourage you when they are funding and incentives available i over heard a few people talk about utilizing community gardens. There are all types of unique approaches. I think we have Resources Available in our communities. If we are not using the resources, they go to waste. Thank you so much. Supervisor mandelman next speaker. Good morning. As a single mother in bayview i know how difficult it is for low income families and expecting mothers to have access and afford healthy food. It is extremely hard to live on a fixed income and have to pay for convenience. The options we have are over priced. I am here today on behalf of the coalition requesting more fresh affordable food resources in our community. Thank you. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. I am andrea. I am here on behalf of the coalition as well. As a Community Member and mother in this community to a child who has . Developmental issues. Diet is essential to her growth. Especially when she goes to school. For me i am here to ask that there are more resources to help the community organization. What they are doing with your fresh fruits and like the woman said before. That is what i am here for. Thank you. Supervisor mandelman thank you. If there are any speakers in the overflow room who wants to speak, you probably should come over now. Thank you so much for the hearing today. It is really a critical issue. I have been working with homeless pregnant women and poor families for 30 years now. Until they asked me to pull together working on food issues did i realize the extent of Food Insecurity. We heard today the importance of preventing preterm bit and Mental Illness in africanamerican women and immigrant women, it is essential to have proper nutrition. We have a food pantry with 1500pound of Fresh Produce from the food bank once a week. It is gone the day we get it. I dont want to repeat anything people said. I want to say in my closing statement i would like to say that the prevalence of Food Insecurity in one of the nations wealthiest cities is unacceptable, and i believe we can do something about it. In 2007, San Francisco decided it was unacceptable our struggling neighbors didnt have healthcare so we created healthy San Francisco, a coordinated system of care for the uninsured. Why can we not create a coordinated system of care including healthy and ample food for all. I urge all of us to recognize Food Insecurity is a continuum of healthcare and it is an issue we can solve by working together. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker. [speaking foreign language] hello everyone. I am from district 11. I also the participant from the ymca. I want to say every week i have to go to the food bank to get the food i need. That is really important for our seniors. I am hoping you can guarantee the food quality and quantity distributed food for us. Thank you. Supervisor mandelman next speaker, please. Hello. I am with the ymca. Speaking foreign language]. Hello. I am also from the ymca. The issue that i want to raise is that every week i also want to get my food from the food bank, and the food i get is vegetables, eggs and fruits. I want to say that it is food that is rotten, do not distribute to us. Thank you. Supervisor stefani are there any other speakers for Public Comment on the hearing . Anyone in the overflow room . If afternoon. Good afternoon, i am chair of the Food Task Force and meals on wheels. I want to say lets do more of this. Calling this hearing is critical. Having the task force and city departments and members of the Community Coming back for a new resolution, look at the Strategic Plan and bring together the players and do a shared measurement tool at the city wide level . We know the task force is working since 2005. This is where we want to elevate it at the city level with the mayor and board of supervisors and the Controllers Office so thank you. Supervisor stefani any other speakers . Public comment is closed. Ms. Jones, i have a question i would like to ask. In light of what we heard in terms of our citys Family Resource centers and other programs that we know are working, i am woul i am wonderit programs are working well . Is there any immediate actions we can take to improve the programs and what could we do immediately . There are longterm issues to focus on but immediately with Family Resource centers . Are there programs we can make immediate investment or changes in . I would say they are all working as hard as they can. They are limited a lot of times by capacity issues. I think that what we have seen is a lot of comments about additional funding for food preparation, storage, more pantries. We rely on the San FranciscoMarin Food Bank for this universal approach. Serving everybody who needs in many locations. We also have as someone mentioned. We have targeted funds that we work with leveraging, same for wic mothers. We committed to nine moms of the person showing up pregnant they are given nine months additional. We expanded support for match at farmers markets. With the calfresh card, you get additional funds. There is a lot. You know, the School District is doing amazing efforts to rebuild kitchens. There was never infrastructure. It was like we didnt really build that infrastructure. We are playing catchup and they are doing amazing work to feed all of the kid, they are doing as much as they can with the resources they have had. We have heard solutions around expanding what our partners are able to do. Enrollment in federal food programs is our first goal. Human Service Agencies working with our Community Partners to enroll everyone they can. You can tell the climate is always like we make these and then there are threats and attacks. Susie, i dont know if you have comments or suggestions, too. Sure, i mean, one example we have home delivered meals for seniors and people with disabilities. We could extend that to pregnant moms. These are locally funded. We need help to get the word out in the community about the myths and facts on public charge. There is a lot of misconceptions. Someone here today said they were a citizen and were afraid being on calfresh can hurt them. There is a lot of misinformation out there. We have been getting the word out. I think that is something. I mentioned the caseload to clients in calfresh, the reality is the new public charge rule directly impacts very few people on benefits because most of the people who qualify for benefits are exempt, they are refugees. I think how we bundletic programs at life junctures like the new pilot to do wic and calfresh and free diapers. The social Services Network is across the city trying to think about the juncture. S to partner even more. If i would add we need to test a lot of things. Really have that ability to see what is going to work for transportation, for delivery. We really dont have things like that operating right now and we have to be coordinated. When we test something lets be honest and communicate. How can we improve . That ability to innovate is what is needed right now. Commissioner walton i want to thank supervisor stephanie and thank the community for coming out. As a former frc director and someone who worked for the department of children, youth and families when we did the realignment for the frc and hsa was involved and dcyf was involved and first five was involved. Now the networks under first five from a resource standpoint that was the department with the least amount of resources. I there Say Something controversial. Resource centers are the cushion of support for families. They are where the families rely on most of the basic needs, particularly the families in poverty and low income communities. It is imperative to make sure that the resources for Family Resource centers are plenty full, and it is good to see dph here at the table. I wonder how to get a larger investment from the department of Public Health towards Family Resource centers and increase investment from hfa. If i look at the model and resources those departments have a better opportunity to provide more resources to the network that is a True Protection for our families that live in poverty. It is good to see everybody represented here. I hope there is a possibility for the department of Public Health to give a larger investment to the network around food securities. We will Work Together to see how we can make that happen. I want to reiterate the great work of our frc. How they are a big piece of keeping Families Together to make sure their needs are met. Our families truly rely on on the network and frc. Thank you all for your work. You have an advocat on the board of supervisors who has been there and who has worked in the communities and will continue to work. I want to thank supervisor stephanie for calling the hearing. It is very, very important. Supervisor mandelman thank you. My only comments and remarks are to thank you vice chair stephanie for calling the hearing. Supervisor stefani i want to thank everybody who came and participated in this hearing. When i first talked to martha ryan about it. I know martha very well. I served on the homeless directors for the Prenatal Program for six years and i believe in anything they take on always changes peoples lives. I have seen it with my own eyes. I find that to be work that needs done on an every day basis in the city. I want to thank the departments. Paula, thank you for your be excellent presentation and all of the Community Benefit organizations. Food banks, meals on wheels for doing this extremely important work. The prevalence in Food Insecurity in one of the worlds wealthiest cities is unacceptable. The income equality is unacceptable. When we think about income equality and you look at 40 years ago c. E. O. S made 40 times their workers now it is 400 times the workers. It is unacceptable the mothers cant feed the kids, cant feed themselves when they are pregnant. We have to do something about it. I know there are action businesses in the long and short term. I want to begin by asking our budget and legislative Analyst Office to do an assessment of the San Francisco systematic engagement on Food Security. I believe we really need to understand all of the programs available and what the limitations are and how they can Work Together better, coordinate better with the Family Resource centers. I want to ask them to assess what information we should collect on Food Insecurity and remember ways to best obtain that information. Based on the transportation issues today i will follow up with the m. T. A. Based on the fact we have heard people cant get food carts on the buses or strollers on the buses. That is unacceptable to me. I will follow up and look at short and longterm solutions around the transportation struggles and extending deliveries to the network in place. I will do that immediately. I want to thank my colleagues. I know their hearts are big and i know they are in this with me and i look forward to working on with my colleagues and with you. I know we can make a difference in San Francisco. We have to make a difference. Unless anybody has anything else, i think we can file this hearing for now. Please know we will follow up with your stories. They have meant a lot to me. They are very emotional. I intend to do everything i can to help make a difference. Supervisor mandelman thank you, vice chair stephanie. Supervisor mandelman we will take that without objection. Mr. Clerk, any other items before us today . Clerk there is no further business. Supervisor mandelman we are adjourned. Thank you. I love teaching. It is such an exhilarating experience when people began to feel their own creativity. This really is a place where all people can come and take a class and fill part of the community. This is very enriching as an artist. A lot of folks take these classes and take their digital imagery and turn it into negatives. There are not many black and white darkrooms available anymore. That is a really big draw. This is a signature piece. This is the bill largest darkroom in the u. S. There are a lot of people that want to get into that dark room. I think it is the heart of this place. You feel it when you come in. The people who just started taking pictures, so this is really an intersection for many generations of photographers and this is a great place to learn because if you need people from different areas and also everyone who works here is working in photography. We get to build the community here. This is different. First of all, this is a great location. It is in a lesspopulated area. Of lot of people come here just so that they can participate in this program. It is a great opportunity for people who have a little bit of photographic experience. The people have a lot, they can really come together and share a love and a passion. We offer everything from traditional black and white darkrooms to learning how to process your first roll of film. We offer classes and workshops in digital camera, digital printing. We offer classes basically in the shooting, ton the town at night, treasure island. There is a way for the programs exploring everyone who would like to spend the day on this program. Hello, my name is jennifer. My name is simone. We are going on a field trip to take pictures up the hill. Cmon, cmon, cmon. Actually, i have been here a lot. I have never looked closely enough to see everything. Now, i get to take pictures. We want to try to get them to be more creative with it. We let them to be free with them but at the same time, we give them a little bit of direction. You can focus in here. That was cool. If you see that . Behind the city, behind the houses, behind those hills. The see any more hills . These kids are wonderful. They get to explore, they get to see different things. We let them explore a little bit. They get their best. If their parents ever ask, we can learn they can say that they learned about the depth of field or the rule of thirds or that the shadows can give a good contrast. Some of the things they come up with are fantastic. That is what were trying to encourage. These kids can bring up the creativity and also the love for photography. A lot of people come into my classes and they dont feel like they really are creative and through the process of working and showing them and giving them some tips and ideas. This is kind of the best kept secret. You should come on and take a class. We have orientations on most saturdays. This is a really wonderful location and is the real jewel to the community. Ready to develop your photography skills . The Harvey Milk Photo Center focuses on adult classes. And saturday workshops expose youth and adults to photography classes. As latinos we are unified in some ways and incredibly diverse in others and this exhibit really is an exploration of nuance in how we present those ideas. Our debts are not for sale. A piece about sanctuary and how his whole family served in the army and its a long Family Tradition and these people that look at us as foreigners, we have been here and we are part of america, you know, and we had to reinforce that. I have been cure rating here for about 18 year. We started with a table top, candle, flower es, and a picture and people reacted to that like it was the monna lisa. The most important tradition as it relates to the show is idea of making offering. In Traditional Mexican alters, you see food, candy, drinks, cigarettes, the things that the person that the offerings where being made to can take with them into the next word, the next life. Keeps u. S us connects to the people who have passed and because family is so important to us, that Community Dynamic makes it stick and makes it visible and it humanizes it and makes it present again. When i first started doing it back in 71, i wanted to do something with ritual, ceremony and history and you know i talked to my partner ross about the research and we opened and it hit a cord and people loved it. I think the line between engaging everyone with our culture and appropriating it. I think it goes back to asking people to bring their visions of what it means to honor the dead, and so for us its not asking us to make mexican altars if they are not mexican, its really to share and expand our vision of what it means to honor the dead. People are very respectful. I can show you this year alone of people who call tol ask is it okay if we come, we are hawaii or asian or we are this. What should we wear . What do you recommend that we do . They say oh, you know, we want a four day of the dead and its all hybrid in this country. What has happened are paper cuts, its so hybrid. It has spread to mexico from the bay area. We have influence on a lot of people, and im proud of it. A lot of tim times they dont represent we represent a lot of cultures with a lot of different perspectives and beliefs. I can see the city changes and its scary. When we first started a lot of people freaked out thinking we were a cult and things like that, but we went out of our way to also make it educational through outreach and that is why we started doing the prosession in 1979. As someone who grew up attending the yearly processions and who has seen them change incrementally every year into kind of what they are now, i feel in many ways that the cat is out of the bag and there is no putting the genie back into the bottle in how the wider public accesses the day of the dead. I have been through three different generations of children who were brought to the procession when they were very young that are now bringing their children or grandchildren. In the 80s, the processions were just kind of electric. Families with their homemade visuals walking down the street in San Francisco. Service so much more intimate and personal and so much more rooted in kind of a Family Practice of a very strong cultural practice. It kind of is what it is now and it has gone off in many Different Directions but i will always love the early days in the 80s where it was so intimate and son sofa millial. Our goal is to rescue a part of the culture that was a part that we could invite others to join in there there by where we invite the person to come help us rescue rescue it also. Thats what makes it unique. You have to know how to approach this changing situation, its exhausting and i have seen how it has affected everybody. Whats happening in mission and the relationship with the police, well its relevant and its relevant that people think about it that day of the dead is not just sugar skulls and paper flowers and candles, but its become a nondenominational tradition that people celebrate. Our culture is about color and family and if that is not present in your life, there is just no meaning to it you know . We have artists as black and brown people that are in direct danger of the direct policies of the trump a administration and i think how each of the artists has responsibilitie responded ss interesting. Interesting. Good morning, everyone. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the september 9th, 2019, meeting of the rules committee. Im hillary ronen, chair of the committee, seated to my right is and seated to my left is rules committee men, supervisor gordon mar. Our clerk is victor young. Id like to thank charles and jim smith from sfgov tv for recording this meeting. Please make sure to silence all cell phone and electronic devices. Copies of any