CONTENTS
SF New Deal launched in March 2020 as a rapid response to COVID-19. Using privately donated funds and government-funded service contracts, we paid local restaurants to provide meals for neighbors in need. We are proud to have taken transformational strides in our second year, and have now disbursed over $32 million to more than 600 local businesses through a variety of small business support and feeding programs.
Since our inception, we have understood that the pandemic did not create San Francisco’s biggest challenges, but rather exacerbated existing inequities. By the end of our first year, we had delivered 1,867,195 meals and disbursed $20 million directly to 184 local restaurants. In 2021, we began our transition from a reactive response organization to a proactive community support system. We look for long-term solutions and build innovative public-private partnerships in order to create a more equitable San Francisco that better serves us all.
Small businesses have been at the heart of our efforts since day one. Small businesses lend incredible vibrancy and character to our neighborhoods and often represent the only opportunity for their under-resourced owners and workers to improve their economic mobility. For this reason, our programs and services primarily support small businesses whose owners identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or women. These groups have historically experienced tremendous barriers to access financial resources and opportunities. We approach our work by centering their needs.
We’re very proud of what the SF New Deal team was able to accomplish in 2021. Some highlights include:
Creating a new, dedicated small business support services team that launched 5 new pilot programs to a wide variety of small business
Diversifying our meal service models, expanding from exclusively delivered meals to include paper based vouchers and texting based models for on-demand meal pickups
Leading special projects like consulting and community engagement so that our effective approach to program and service delivery could be replicated by others
In the year ahead, we plan to:
Distribute more than $1 million to help small businesses come into compliance with new regulations for Shared Spaces and engage local artists and performers in beautifying and activating these outdoor spaces that foster community and generate supplemental revenue for small businesses
Proactively engage and educate local businesses about available financial resources, supporting the equitable distribution of up to $10 million in small business grants
Continue our ongoing focus on data-driven resource and needs mapping to better understand gaps in programs and services for the constituents we serve
Across our programs, we strive to build connected pathways and trusted partnerships between local business owners, workers, community leaders, the government, and neighbors in need. Together, we are able to effectively pilot and scale solutions that address San Francisco’s most persistent and entrenched challenges.
Going forward, with your sustained support, we can expand our existing programs as well as launch new pilots to discover sustainable ways to support our community.
Thank you for being part of our journey.
Jacob Bindman and Jenais Zarlin
Chief Program Officer and Chief Impact Officer
Our Impact
SF New Deal assisted 579 small businesses and their more than 3,465 workers through programs and services, meal purchases, and microgrants. We continued operating our community feeding programs and expanded beyond restaurant support with a new SF New Deal branch focused on supportive services for small businesses of all types.
Explore Our 2021 Impact By District
Click on each district label below to see how many small businesses we supported and how dollars were disbursed. Green circle icons indicate the locations of businesses that we have highlighted in this report. Learn more about them below!
Our Programs
Small Business Support Services
At SF New Deal, we work directly with the communities we serve to identify their biggest challenges, move quickly to pilot creative solutions, and forge public-private partnerships to provide long-term support. This year, SF New Deal launched several innovative pilot programs that aim to address the root causes of the pressing needs of small businesses across our city to support their success.
$1 Million Small Business Micro Grant Debt Relief Program
We disbursed $1,000,000 in $2,500 micro grants to 400 diverse small businesses impacted by COVID-19 closures. These small businesses, located in all eleven districts of San Francisco, ranged from bookstores to childcare centers to salons. Learn more about the program and grant recipients here.
Excelsior Coffee Co.
Shared Cultures
Saviour’s Salon
In addition to receiving funds, microgrant recipients participated in an in depth survey process so that we could better understand their experiences, perspectives, and challenges operating their small businesses. We are using the collected data to strengthen our understanding of where we should invest resources and programmatic support to deepen our impact and better serve the small business community.
Small Business Management Training
This program provided professional development training to small business middle managers, equipping them to address common challenges like strengthening internal team culture, employee retention, and scarce advancement opportunities.
Spanish/English Language Pilot Program
Many workers in small businesses have limited English language proficiency; likewise, many owners and managers are monolingual English speakers. This pilot program helped non-English speaking workers improve English language skills and non-Spanish speaking workers to improve Spanish language skills. We believe future iterations of this program will improve communication and create new opportunities for workplace advancement and strengthen internal team culture.
Enterprise for Youth Internship Program
We paired 18 small businesses with 18 paid youth interns who provided free one-on-one marketing support (website redesigns and social media) over the course of six weeks. Enterprise for Youth empowers under-resourced San Francisco youth to reach their potential through transformative paid internship experiences supported by a community of employers, caring adults, and peers.
Zero Waste Pilot Program
We received a grant from the SF Department of the Environment to support small businesses in making the transition to reusable containers from one time use disposable to-go ware. We launched the initiative at the end of Q4 2021, and transitioned three restaurants away from disposables. During just the first 8 weeks of the program, we successfully diverted 1532 containers and 600 single use bags. In 2022, we will expand this public-private partnership with SFE and Dispatch Goods, aiming to transition 20 restaurants from single-use disposables to reusable container systems.
Small Business Spotlight: LaLe
We helped LaLe make the switch to reusables in late 2021. Through participation in this program, they are diverting over 120 to-go containers and 32 one-time use bags out of the landfill each week.
“We are grateful that we contribute to less wastefulness by using beautiful Dispatch reusable take out containers. Our customers often remark about how excited they are that LaLe has started using the eco-friendly service!” - Suzan Helvaci, owner
Small businesses are critical to both the economy and culture of a city, providing jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities and community gathering spaces. In San Francisco, where every neighborhood has its own unique, specific and eclectic culture, small businesses are critical touchstones and their impact on cultural life is immeasurable.
One of the many devastating impacts of the pandemic has been the negative impacts on small businesses across the country - and San Fransisco is no exception.
Featured below are a few of the small businesses that received microgrants through our 2021 Debt Relief Program. Together, they represent a range of perspectives and experiences with a common thread of facing the challenges of small business ownership prior to and during the pandemic. Small business support programs like ours will be even more critical in 2022, as many federal and state relief programs wind down – even in the face of continued challenges for small businesses.
Ng Hing Kee
Ng Hing Kee is a historic small business that has been selling authentic Asian literary works and other artistic goods in SF Chinatown for over 65 years. A long-standing, family-owned business, Ng Hing Kee was significantly impacted by the pandemic.
“The market for buying and selling books has hugely decreased and sales have basically disappeared from the pandemic. We have been forced to shift our business to selling magazines and doing vehicle registrations. But we adapt. We are happy to adjust our business model to help out the local Chinese community in new ways.” - YanWah Ng
Geomantic Hair Salon
Zeon Kitchiner opened the doors to Geomantic Hair Salon in 2016. Located in the Western Addition, Zeon is deeply rooted in the neighborhood and local community, “Because I grew up in the neighborhood, I think I send a powerful message to the kids of color growing up in the neighborhood. Our shop caters to all genders and ethnicities and in that I feel that we reflect San Franciscan values of inclusivity, diversity and being unique.”
“I am a native San Franciscan and grew up in the Western Addition. I have been doing hair for 35 years since I was 16. I dropped out of high school and decided to go to beauty school and pay my way through college. It took many years to do it but I graduated from UC Berkeley after transferring from City College of SF. Now I own a business for 6 years in the neighborhood I grew up in. I am happy to be a part of the community and be a link to the previous generations of Black San Franciscans that still remain in the Western Addition.” - Zeon Kitchiner
Wine Down
Wine Down is a women-owned and operated neighborhood wine and craft beer bar located in Yerba Buena. Close friends, Jaime and Sarah, opened Wine Down with a strong mission to buy locally, with a focus on supporting other small businesses owned by women and other historically underrepresented groups. The pandemic hit their business especially hard; they had to pay rent for 16 months while their doors were fully closed. Jaime and Sarah are still working to pay back their rent, and have dedicated their grant from SF New Deal to expanding their business model to adapt to changes brought on by the pandemic.
“Our downtown location used to be a strength; most of our revenue came from events booked through conventions and nearby companies, as well as busy happy hours with local office workers. Now with larger conventions canceled, offices closed and many offices planning on work remote indefinitely, we’re concerned that we will feel the negative impact of COVID-19 for years to come.” - Jaime Hiraishi
Community Feeding Programs
SF New Deal launched in March 2020 as a COVID rapid-response program to feed neighbors in need. To date, we have delivered more than 2.8 million meals to food insecure San Franciscans. We are continually adapting our programs to better address food insecurity among our city’s most vulnerable populations.
2021 Impact of our Community Feeding Programs
Community-Based Organization (CBO)
Our CBO program is our original, primarily privately funded program. Since March 2020, we have partnered with more than 20 long-serving community-based organizations to deliver free, substantive, and culturally relevant restaurant meals to neighbors in need.
Community Partner Spotlight: Humanmade
Humanmade is a community-non-profit studio that provides access to training, tools, and facilities through workforce development and public training sessions.
Our partnership provides locally made restaurant meals to food insecure participants of Humanmade’s workforce development programs, some of whom are unhoused or were previously incarcerated. These meals increased participants’ access to healthy, delicious, and culturally competent food, improving program retention and graduation rates.
“The partnership with SF New Deal has been transformative for our participants’ ability to get through the program and not have to think about where their next meal is going to come from.” - Ryan Spurlock, Executive Director
Congregate Housing
The City of San Francisco established congregate housing sites to provide shelter and meals to people in quarantine or those who were previously unhoused in response to COVID-19. SF New Deal has provided culturally competent breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals at these congregate housing sites three times per day, seven days per week since May 2020.
Feed + Fuel 2.0
Feed + Fuel was an innovative public-private partnership that safeguarded the health of Chinatown seniors and families living in single room occupancies and provided economic relief to Chinatown small businesses. Feed + Fuel initially ran for 2.5 months during shelter-in-place in 2020, and was relaunched in January 2021 by SF New Deal, the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) and the City of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency (HSA).
Great Plates Delivered
Great Plates Delivered was a FEMA-funded, state-run program that delivered meals to homebound seniors and provided economic relief for restaurants. Launched in May 2020, the program was administered locally by San Francisco’s Department of Disability and Aging Services (DAS). As a service provider selected by the city, SF New Deal worked with local restaurants to provide home-delivered meals to eligible seniors across every district in the city.
Takeout Today
Launched in August 2021 and funded by the City of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency, Takeout Today supplements San Francisco's food security network by providing free and immediate, same-day food support for any San Franciscan in need of a meal. Food insecure residents can text us and receive a code via SMS redeemable at a participating nearby neighborhood restaurant of their choice.
Small Business Partner Spotlight: La Laguna
La Laguna, a Mexican restaurant in the Bayview, has been a neighborhood cornerstone for over 22 years. In 2021, through participation in Takeout Today, they delivered 2,106 meals to neighbors in need and will continue participating in 2022.
“We are excited to be able to participate in such a genuine and innovative program. Our business has felt the financial benefits, and also, the great benefits of feeding people who are part of our Bayview community.” - Ray Guerrero
Community Engagement and Consulting
A key strength of our team is our ability to serve as a facilitator and mediator between diverse stakeholders in San Francisco. We are committed to sharing what we’ve learned through consulting and community engagement.
Consulting with Onside Partners
SF New Deal worked with Onside Partners, Urbane Development and Mercy Housing to inform plans for a new affordable housing development slated to open in 2024. We worked directly with local community members and made recommendations, aiming to lower barriers to access to healthy, fresh and affordable food for residents.
Safer Together Fiscal Sponsorship
SF New Deal served as fiscal sponsor for Safer Together, a new program that provides affordable rapid Covid tests to summer camps, schools, and other group settings. We also provided supplementary consulting around financial systems setup and client success systems.
Client Services
Our client services team serves as a resource hub for all of our constituencies and is the nerve center for all of our efforts: volunteer coordination, meal delivery, technical assistance, small business services and our call center. Our call center operates 7 days a week and supports 5 languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, English, and Spanish.
Caitlyn Durkin
Caitlyn is one of our stellar volunteers who supported our Call Center, gathering feedback on our community feeding programs. In 2021, Caitlyn answered an incredible 400+ calls.
“I saw so many urgent needs in our city during the course of the pandemic that it was pretty overwhelming to even know where to start. SF New Deal provided a path for me to help people keep their families fed while they were unable to do the jobs they usually do.
I heard about SF New Deal through friends and colleagues that work in the restaurant industry. They told me the only reason they were able to stay in business during the course of the pandemic was due to this program.
The overwhelming responses I got [from meal recipients] were that the program literally saved their lives during shelter-in-place when they were unable to cook for themselves or get groceries.” - Caitlyn Durkin
Supporter Spotlights
Our ability to effectively deliver impactful programs and services depends on sustained investment and contributions from the community around us. We’re proud to highlight two relationships that have been key to our growth as an organization.
Cruise
Since 2020, Cruise has volunteered their all-electric, self-driving fleet to deliver 163,579 meals for SF New Deal. Our partnership provides a mutually beneficial and innovative way to scale our delivery and reach more impacted community members.
"Cruise is proud to partner with SF New Deal, an innovative, equity-focused organization working tirelessly over the past two years to keep the doors of small businesses open, workers employed, and neighbors in need nourished and connected. This partnership inspired our Cruise for Good commitment and has played a significant role in our efforts to deliver nearly 2 million meals to San Franciscans in need.” - Amanda Lenaghan (Head of Social Impact, Cruise)
Rohan Paranjpe
Rohan generously volunteered his technical expertise to build the first version of our service operations logistics platform and has continued to support our work as a monthly recurring donor, utilizing his employer’s giving platform so every donation is matched, doubling his impact.
“The pandemic taught us that we’re stronger together. I love how SF New Deal provides both economic support to our small businesses and restaurants, while also being able to provide food and meals to those in need, truly demonstrating how to give back and strengthen our community.” - Rohan Paranjpe
Who We Are
Mission & Values
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Mission
SF New Deal provides supportive services and financial opportunities for small businesses in San Francisco. We work to address both the symptoms and root causes of inequity by building pathways which connect local business owners, workers, community leaders, and neighbors in need, for the benefit of the entire city.
Our values
SF New Deal strives to be:
EMPATHETIC: We listen to and seek to understand the needs of our community, holding space to hear the challenges of those we serve.
RESPONSIVE: Through direct service, advocacy, and coalition building, we turn empathy into action and create collective frameworks that address San Francisco’s most persistent challenges for both immediate and lasting impact.
COLLABORATIVE: Our work is guided by trusted partnerships with individuals, advocates and organizations that have spent decades working to support San Francisco’s most vulnerable populations.
ACCOUNTABLE: Showing solidarity includes providing transparency into how, where and why SF New Deal operates and where resources are being directed. We strive to be accessible and accountable to all community stakeholders and welcome perspectives and insight that may encourage practices that will best serve everyone in our community.
CENTERING THE COMMUNITY: We are committed to driving change which amplifies voices of those closest to harm. The wisdom of their lived experience informs our decision making, drives change and builds solutions for lasting impact.
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Addressing inequity at its core requires acknowledging the systematic and deliberate lack of resources which have been provided to Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, disabled, female identifying, immigrant, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and low income communities in San Francisco and across the United States. Systems of oppression are varied and intersectional in their existence, and we recognize the extent to which individuals and communities have been impacted in nuanced and compounding ways.
Not all residents, small businesses and communities in San Francisco experience the same challenges. Overwhelmingly, the variations that exist are the direct result of systemic and structural oppression, injustice and disempowerment, which have created disparities with disproportionate impacts.
At SF New Deal, we aspire to be equitable in our focus and distribution of support. For us, that means explicitly, and proportionately, providing financial opportunity to workers and businesses from impacted communities, and resources for residents who have historically and systemically been under-resourced. At its core, we believe that acting in pursuit of equity means centering individuals who are closest to harm.
We operate several programs, each with its own context, and with a unique set of stakeholders, considerations, limitations and opportunities. Across our programs, we are guided by a vision of San Francisco which provides an abundance of support, dignity, respect, gratitude and appreciation for small businesses and neighbors in need that results from dismantling systems that cause disproportionate harm .
We’re committed to engaging in ongoing practices of accountability and recognize the responsibility we have to our stakeholders and within the community at large about how, where and why we’re spending dollars, operating programs, and providing support.
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Sustainability is at the heart of our work. Our programs and projects align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals of Zero Hunger (goal 2), Promoting Sustained Inclusive Economic Growth and Decent Work (goal 8) and Reduce Inequality (goal 10).
ZERO HUNGER
We address food insecurity through direct service and by informing policy. We provide direct service through our community feeding programs. We have informed policy as participants on the SF Food Security Task Force and through our engagement in collaborative food assessment projects.
PROMOTING SUSTAINED INCLUSIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DECENT WORK
We provide resources and opportunities to San Francisco’s small businesses. Small business ownership is one of the few accessible pathways to create wealth among marginalized and under resourced groups. Since launching, we have worked with over 600 small businesses, of which over 80% self-identify as BIPOC, woman or LGBTQ+ owned. Our programs provide reliable recurring revenue to help keep small businesses open and local workers employed (many of whom are undocumented immigrants ineligible for government aid).
REDUCE INEQUALITY
SF New Deal’s programs work to address both the symptoms and root causes of inequity. Our programs and services apply an equity framework to direct financial resources and opportunities to systemically underresourced groups. We have open feedback loops for participating small businesses, meal recipients and other stakeholders we serve, and we utilize a multi-layered quality control system to ensure that all services SF New Deal provides prioritize the needs of those closest to harm.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
We are committed to support our small business partners’ integration of sustainable practices into their operations including their transition to reusable foodware and containers. Additionally, we have joined the ReusableSF coalition to support broader city-wide efforts to advance sustainability policies and infrastructure. We will continue to pursue collaborative partnerships, programs and opportunities that support our community of small businesses integrating sustainable practices and principles into their operations.
Our Team
Our Board
Lenore Estrada
President
Simileoluwa Adebajo
Secretary
Ken Shear
Treasurer
Paul Burns
Director
Awards & Recognition
Eater New Guard
SF New Deal co-founder Jacob Bindman was acknowledged by Eater in the 2021 Eater New Guard as an inspiring leader empowering the community through food.
SFAAFBC Outstanding Partner Recognition
SF New Deal was recognized by the San Francisco African American Faith Based Coalition for Outstanding Partnership.
2021 Special Appreciation Award
Joaquín Torres, SF Assessor-Recorder, awarded SF New Deal with a 2021 Special Appreciation.
TimeOut “Best City” Callout
“... businesses got creative to stay afloat, while innovative initiatives like SF New Deal put restaurant employees to work making meals for those in need. Neighbours stepped up to take care of each other through far-reaching mutual aid networks...”
CCDC Super Partner of the Year
SF New Deal was named as one of Chinatown Community Development Center’s 2021 Super Partner of the Year.