Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In November 2025 the federal government suspended SNAP food benefits for the first time in the program's 60-year history; 112,000 San Franciscans, one in seven residents, faced immediate food insecurity overnight.
This team of exceptional managers led a targeted, equitable, and strategic response ensuring people would not go hungry. In just one week, they built an unprecedented $18 million public-private partnership with the Crankstart Foundation and financial technology company GiveCard, using grocery-restricted debit cards to preserve vital food access for San Francisco's most vulnerable residents.
The result? One week after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Crankstart’s Board of Directors approved the funding, 18,000 San Franciscans claimed their emergency grocery gift cards, followed by 53,000 recipients two weeks later. By the gift card activation deadline just 8 weeks later, over 65,000 CalFresh households had claimed $14.4 million in emergency grocery gift cards.
In November 2025 the federal government suspended SNAP food benefits for the first time in the program's 60-year history; 112,000 San Franciscans, one in seven residents, faced immediate food insecurity overnight.
This team of exceptional managers led a targeted, equitable, and strategic response ensuring people would not go hungry. In just one week, they built an unprecedented $18 million public-private partnership with the Crankstart Foundation and financial technology company GiveCard, using grocery-restricted debit cards to preserve vital food access for San Francisco's most vulnerable residents.
The result? One week after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Crankstart’s Board of Directors approved the funding, 18,000 San Franciscans claimed their emergency grocery gift cards, followed by 53,000 recipients two weeks later. By the gift card activation deadline just 8 weeks later, over 65,000 CalFresh households had claimed $14.4 million in emergency grocery gift cards.
