San Francisco Food Bank – working to end hunger; now fed with green energy

  

Story submitted by Laura Fischer

The San Francisco Food Bank collects and distributes most of the food that local human service agencies use to fight hunger. The donated food comes from grocers, manufacturers, and growers. The food is distributed to programs for the underserved such as senior centers, schools, daycare, and soup kitchens, to name a few. They expect to distribute over 31 million pounds of food this year, and partner with nearly 500 non-profit and community organizations to fulfill their mission to end hunger in San Francisco. 

The SF Food Bank, in addition to being a leader in ending hunger, has now become one on the green energy front. Much of the food that the Food Bank collects and distributes comes from the sun through photosynthesis. Fruits and vegetables which would normally be thrown out by growers due to cuts, nicks, or wrong size are distributed by the Food Bank. Now the sun is also contributing directly to the workings of the Food Bank itself. Recently 320 solar panels were installed on the roof, through which the Food Bank will be getting a projected 10 -15% of their energy needs met.  Most of the energy is used to power a 41,000 cubic feet cooler and freezer that house some of the 31 million pounds of food that will feed hungry people in San Francisco this year. 

Many non-profit organizations don’t own the buildings they do business in. However, fifteen years ago, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) donated land to the Food Bank. Last year PG&E approached them again wanting to donate $210,000 in photovoltaic solar panels and installation. The San Francisco Department of the Environment offered another $75,000 to increase the size of the system to 320 solar panels.Stacy Robinson, Manager and Michael Braude, director of Finance & Administration in the Food Bank worked hard to make this project happen. They had to successfully coordinate the challenge of both donations coming in at the same time. According to Michael “Funders saw that this project was more than about just reducing energy usage or decreasing our carbon footprint – this was about helping this agency do more of what we are trying to accomplish- reach our mission sooner – accomplish our mission better. Every dollar saved in energy costs is converted into nine dollars of food.”

The SF Food Bank received technical support with the project through the Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE). According to Michael, FEE was extremely helpful when talking to the various vendors. FEE assisted by helping them to understand the options and question the vendors when they weren’t clear. They chose Sun Light and Power to install the solar panels. “Sun Light and Power was very competitive and they were interested in optimally utilizing the architecture of the building.” 

 

Many of the 70 full- and part-time staff members at the Food Bank would love to put solar panels on their roofs. However with the high cost of housing in the San Francisco area and living on a non-profit salary, most of them cannot afford to own their own home. For those that do own their own home, the cost of solar panels at present prices is felt not to be affordable. However they all want to reduce their carbon footprint. Many ride their bikes to work or take public transportation. They are very excited to have the solar panels generating electricity to make an even greater impact at work.  

 

As you enter the building you probably are not able to see these solar panels but you can see them as you look down on Pennsylvania Avenue in San Francisco from route 280 south. As you walk into the reception area there is a computer kiosk where you can see how much solar energy is being generated by reaching the solar panels on the roof of the SF Food Bank (solar irradiance varies with time of year, location, cloud cover etc.) and how much of this solar energy the solar cells are converting to electricity. You can see live information on Watts currently generating, how many kWh have been generated over several time periods, and how many pounds of green house gases have been avoided.

You can also check this on any computer connected to the internet at: Data for the SF Food Bank.

The Food Bank will save an estimated $15,000 in electricity cost per year and over $450,000 over the 30 year anticipated life of the system. This money will translate directly into 90,000 pounds of food or more than 72,000 meals each year. The 57.6 kW system is expected to generate 115,000 kWh of clean energy each year and avoid 53,000 pounds of CO₂ gases. 

Everybody talks about helping others and saving energy.  By going through the process of having a PV system installed on their roof, the Food Bank is doing both: getting more food into the community while increasing awareness about solar energy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 7:11 pm and is filed under California, General Info, Perspectives . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.