Past Programs

In 2021 we disbursed $1,000,000 in $2,500 micro-grants to 400 small businesses in all eleven districts of San Francisco. This self-funded program awarded grants to businesses whose sales were negatively impacted by COVID-19 closures. Over 85% of awarded businesses are owned by women, BIPOC, immigrants, and LGBTQ+. Findings from surveys conducted with grant receipts can be found in our Small Business Survey Report.

Spanish/English Language Pilot

Launched in November 2021, this program aimed to improve English language skills for non-English speaking workers and Spanish language skills for non-Spanish speaking workers. The pilot was born from the belief that strengthening inter-team language abilities can increase opportunities for workplace advancement in addition to improving internal team culture and communication.

Small Business Management Training

This pilot program aimed to provide small business middle managers with professional development. The first cohort met weekly on Zoom to help managers develop their team-building skills and improve team culture at a time when employee retention and staff shortages are particularly challenging.

Community Eating

In partnership with the City of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency and local restaurants, we provided participating individuals with two vouchers per week per individual to be redeemed at a designated participating restaurant partner. The Community Eating Program was a meal voucher program that provided residents living in Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels with free meals from local restaurants.

Feed + Fuel

In partnership with the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) and the City of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency (HSA), SF New Deal relaunched Feed + Fuel in January 2021. Feed + Fuel was an innovative public-private partnership that safeguarded the health of Chinatown seniors and families living in single-room occupancies (SRO) and provided vital economic relief to Chinatown small businesses and their workers at the onset of COVID shelter-in-place. The collective effort provided 327,961 meals to 3,300 residents and supported 57 restaurants in San Francisco.

The original program launched in April 2020 and was operated by CCDC, Self-Help for the Elderly and SF New Deal and it served 122,000 meals to more than 1000 Chinatown residents over a 2.5-month period.

Great Plates Delivered

Launched in May 2020, Great Plates Delivered was a State program created to deliver meals to homebound seniors and provide economic relief for restaurants. 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 seniors across every district in the city. Over the course of 14 months, SF New Deal delivered 1,631,071 meals and disbursed $12,700,000 to 70 small businesses.

Takeout Today

Launched in August 2021 in partnership with the City of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency, Takeout Today supplemented the City’s food security network by providing free and immediate, same-day food support for San Francisco residents. The program provided urgent hot meals to SF residents experiencing food insecurity. SF New Deal distributed 37,955 meals to 11,215 individuals in San Francisco.

Congregate Housing Sites

In partnership with the City of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency and local restaurants, SF New Deal provided culturally competent breakfast, lunch and dinner meals three times per day, seven days per week to 12 congregate hotel sites.

Launched in May 2020 as a response to COVID-19, the City of San Francisco established a number of congregate housing sites to provide shelter and meals to people who are in quarantine or who were previously unhoused. In total, we distributed a total of 946,375 meals to these sites.

Community Based Organizations

Through our CBO program, we partner with small businesses, long-serving community-based organizations and City agencies to provide income for workers and meals for neighbors in need.

Zero Waste Pilot

SF New Deal is supporting small businesses with resources and technical assistance to transition away from single-use disposable foodware to reusables.

This program supports waste reduction goals set forth in the Mayor’s climate action plan and is operated with support from SF Environment and our technical assistance partner ReThink Disposables. This program responds to priority pillar #2.

Worker Transportation Pilot

In response to findings from our Small Business Survey, this pilot program seeks to better understand and address urgent transportation challenges experienced by small business owners and workers citywide. Working in partnership with Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company, we provide free late-night and early-morning transportation for workers in San Francisco.

This program is supported through charitable donations and private funds and supports small business success.

Small Business Training Grants

SF New Deal is supporting the growth and stabilization of small businesses, in partnership with The City of San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), by administering grant payments to small business owners who are recipients of the Small Business Training Grants program.

OEWD is awarding small business owners who have completed a pre-qualified training with the Small Business Development Center, with award amounts ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Applications for the Small Business Training Grant program are currently open and being reviewed and evaluated by OEWD on a rolling basis.