Supervisor Dean Preston Calls on City to Bring a Full-Service Grocery Store to the Tenderloin

District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston today announced a resolution urging City departments to develop and implement a plan to bring a full-service grocery store to the Tenderloin. The highly-populated working-class neighborhood, which encompasses about 50 square blocks in the heart of the city, continues to lack a full-service grocery store, despite being identified by residents as a top community priority for decades.

"The Tenderloin community has consistently expressed its desire for a grocery store for years, and it’s time the City responds to those calls with urgency. Especially in this time of rising food insecurity, I believe the City must step up and bring a full-scale grocery store so Tenderloin residents have a place to buy all of their grocery staples within walking distance from their homes at price points they can afford,” said Preston.

The closest full-service grocery store is, on average for most Tenderloin residents, at least a half a mile away. The majority of the people in the neighborhood do not own or have access to cars, and rely on walking or public transportation to get around, which can make traveling with groceries difficult, and, for seniors and those with mobility issues, sometimes impossible.

Some corner markets have stepped up to stock fresh fruits,vegetables, meats, but due to size and capacity restraints of the smaller stores, the options are limited, causing Tenderloin residents to need to visit several stores to get all of the items they need, and at a price point they can afford.

“At the Food Policy Council and Tenderloin People's Congress, we consider food security for our neighbors an urgent priority,” said Kasey Asberry Rios,Tenderloin Food Policy Council member and neighborhood resident. “In addition to feeding the neighborhood, we also value the networking that happens in a community market and the access to meaningful employment it can provide. We need a community grocery store in the Tenderloin now.”

The resolution calls on City departments, including the San Francisco Human Services Agency, Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and Planning Department to report to the Board of Supervisors within 60 days on previous efforts in the past five years to bring a full-service grocery store to the Tenderloin, potential sites for a grocery store in the Tenderloin, any current efforts or plans for a grocery store to the Tenderloin.

This resolution aligns with Supervisor Preston’s extensive work to address food insecurity in underserved parts of the District, including urging the California State Legislature to provide supplemental CalFresh benefits, winning Halal Food Vouchers in the Tenderloin in the last budget cycle, support for the Heart of the City Farmers Market in the face of displacement, delaying the abrupt closure of the Fillmore’s only full-scale grocery store, and championing the recently announced Grocery Protection Act.