The Free Farm Stand, an urban farm and garden project that has been giving away free produce on Sundays in Parque Niños Unidos at 23rd and Treat streets since 2008, has to move out of the park by Oct. 15, its founder Tree wrote in an e-mail Tuesday night.
“Last week I heard from Park and Recreation Dept. that there were two complaints about our program, claiming we are having a negative impact on the park,” Tree wrote in the e-mail. “Our goal has always been to have a positive impact on the park and the surrounding community. So I was surprised to learn from them about the complaints and that they said that we have to move out of the Parque Niños Unidos on October 15th because of this.”
Even before the gates open on Sunday, a line of families, 20-somethings and seniors forms on Treat. Volunteers on the other side set out beautifully displayed kale, potatoes and other freshly grown produce.
Tree wrote in his e-mail that after handing out flyers to let the community know what was happening, he received an e-mail from Dana Ketcham, the permits and reservations manager at Rec Park, saying that the department had received “complaints that families feel overwhelmed by the crowds as they use this park with their children.”
Ketcham wrote that parks are not authorized places for food distribution, and that “they are intended for other uses and can only be used for recreational purposes. A free food distribution is not allowed as a stand alone operation like this in a park. There are also issues about complying with health codes.”
Ketcham said that the city wanted to give Tree 30 days to look for a new location, and suggested an empty parking lot. It’s not clear whether the city is suggesting a specific parking lot for Tree to set up his free food distribution.
On Monday, the San Francisco Examiner reported that Hayes Valley Farm, which also gives away free produce, must move from its location to make way for a condominium project.
We will be updating this story as we get more information.
I wish one of the complainers would stand up and say what kind of stupid reasoning was going on in their head.
I suggest if this displeases you, write your supervisor. Actually, could we just eject the whole Parks & Rec department and start from scratch? They all seem to be idiots.
I don’t quite understand why we have to listen to the very FEW complaints. Is this something that can be reversed? I could generate approvals from the neighborhood just by getting approval signatures!
Please don’t let the few complainers ruin a truly good thing.
Wonder if the lumber yard or the businesses across the street would let them use their space?
I’m in this park with my kids every weekend. The free farmers market is on the other side of the park from the playground, and next to the grass lawn. It in no way interferes with peoples’ enjoyment of the park. The junkies and homeless who come and use the bathrooms are way more of a nuisance/threat (try taking your kids to the bathroom and you’ll sometimes see a junkie shooting up or a homeless guy taking a bath in the sink) and you don’t see anyone doing anything about that, now, do you.
“Look all these people giving and reciving free foot, what a gruesome act of gratitude and solidarity, I think I will file a complaint with The Park and Recreation Dep. I dont want my kid to be expossed to this kind of humanitary behaivor”
Seriously, I can’t understand how mean people mind’s work sometimes
what’s wrong with people!!!!!! >(
pretty soon, San Francisco will become a ghost town, as EVERYONE WILL LEAVE DUE TO RESTRICTIONS AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL ORDINANCES, and stupid legislation, etc.. the only ones left will be homeless and the bored of stupidvisors. park and wreck has done it again!
San Francisco is becoming a less and less appealing place by the day. Food Not Bombs has been giving out free food in Cesar Chavez Park here in Sacramento for years, and, oddly, people seem to be able to cope with it.
SF Park and Rec has way too many ridiculous restrictions around they parks and its usage. Try to rent a picnic spot for a kid’s birthday celebration and see their restrictions!!! It’s worst than at a military camp in a third world country, and YET they commits Big mistakes and reserve spots twice to different people. It’s bad!
The families that go to this park complains about this? Really? Or is the new homeowners in the neighborhood? Also, the people that take their kids to the park in the mornings get splashed with water by the gardener, the nannies are washed away while the man smiles at it. Complaints has been file about this too. An article about the nannies take on this would be very helpful to show what really is going on there.
Yea right, more like the produce market where overwhelmed by the free food giveaway.