Chinese Newcomers Center holds annual food giveaway in San Francisco Chinatown for 5,000 seniors and low-income families citywide

SAN FRANCISCO — With the continued support from generous donors and volunteers, the Chinese Newcomers Service Center held its long-standing traditional food drive on June 5 in Chinatown.

The giveaway event offered 5,000 food bags, each worth over $85 in retail value, to seniors and low-income families across San Francisco.

The 33rd annual Chinatown Food Drive took place all day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Cameron House whose playground served as a temporary warehouse to store 5,000 food bags and a gathering point for seniors and community members to pick up the food bags

This is also the largest food giveaway event every year targeting underserved Chinese community members in San Francisco.

Recipients of 5,000 food bags had to meet income and San Francisco residency requirements. They needed to sign up beforehand to receive their tickets, which included a time slot to pick up their bags of non-perishable food at Cameron House on June 5.

"The purpose of this food drive is to let residents feel the care and love from the community, and also to reduce the impact of inflation in recent years on low-income community members,” said George Chan, Executive Director of the Chinese Newcomers Service Center.

Since the 1990s, the Chinese Newcomers Service Center has held a Chinatown Food Drive for the Chinese community in San Francisco every year. Chan said the center and its sponsors understood the importance of food to low-income community members, so the annual food giveaway event has been a legendary tradition.

"Despite soaring prices and some food supply chain issues from Asian countries, we are able to purchase and solicit 5,000 food bags this year," said Chan. "Each food bag contains over 20 essential cooking items worth over $85 that are popular among Chinese families."

Chan acknowledged the generous support and donations from the San Francisco Human Services Agency, philanthropist Arthur Chan, the Oriental Food Association, T&T Supermarket, Bank of America, Portsmouth Square Garage Inc., the San Francisco Chinatown Lions Club, event founder Eddie Tsang, Stephen Loo, Poon Foundation, and Chao Suet Foundation.

Each food bag is filled with rice, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking oil, seasonings, rice noodles, rock sugar, biscuits and other Chinese food items.