On a recent Thursday around noon, a man in a private security uniform walking down Mission Street slowed down and peeked inside the door 1928 Mission St.
“Is this a restaurant?” the man asked.
“It’s a soup kitchen,” said Sister Mary Rene. She stood by the door collecting trays as people exited the soup kitchen she, and another nun from the Fraternite Notre Dame of Nazareth, run three times a week on Mission Street between 15th and 16th streets.
“Is it free?”
“Yes. You can come in.”
Reginald Starks smiled. He held an overstuffed plastic bag in one hand and his five-year old son’s hand in the other.
The two sleep at what he described as a “kind of like a group home” in the Excelsior and have to leave every morning until they’re allowed back at night.
“I’m blessed to have this food,” said Starks as he finished a plate of rice, sausage, salad and steamed cauliflower.
The soup kitchen opened in March, but the sisters’ presence in the city goes back to 2008 when they opened a soup kitchen at 54 Turk St. in the Tenderloin. Then in 2016, following a $750,000 donation from the motivational speaker Tony Robbins, the sisters were able to buy the ground floor commercial space of a four-story condominium building on Mission Street. The soup kitchen’s opening, however, was met with opposition from other owners in the building over fears that the services would attract crime, but in 2017 the Planning Commission approved its use as a soup kitchen.
The sisters open their doors at 11:30 a.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and cook all the meals on site. By 1:15, they’ve fed their last visitor. They rely on donations and money earned from selling cookies, pastries and quiches at farmers’ markets throughout the city.
Over the course of lunch on Thursday, about 70 people filed through, sitting for lunch at one of the room’s long tables.
Nelly Largaespada sat at a table with two friends and two dogs.
“I’ve been coming here since they opened. Every day they’re open,” said Largaespada in Spanish, who lives in Bayview and walks in the Mission District every day with her two dogs. “I like the food and the people here. I’ve made friends and I like seeing them.”
While she’s in the Mission, Largaespada said, she can visit the Centro Latino for supportive services, go to her appointments at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and spend time in a neighborhood that makes her feel at home.
Across the room, Neal Dry, who volunteers, sat for a minute to eat lunch. He first encountered the Sisters nine years ago when a friend invited him to have a warm meal with the sisters. He liked it so much that he began to volunteer.
“They were really nice, good people, good food – can’t beat it” said Dry, who lives in a senior building in the Tenderloin.
People can bring their own containers and take food home if they want, Sister Rene said. If they have surplus food, they leave out fruit, vegetables or bread for people to take home.
On Thursday, however, there was no food left.
As to how neighbors who fought against the soup kitchen have reacted, Sister Rene answered by gesturing toward the dining room. “Look, it’s quiet inside and clean outside. We don’t let anyone eat outside to avoid any issues.”
“We make people happy,” said Sister Rene.
Starks and his son Taylor are two of those people. An Excelsior native, he’s been homeless for two years, he says, and has also been taking care of five-year-old Taylor for several months. Taylor’s mother, he said, is also homeless.
“This young boy right here is my best friend,” said Starks, as he peeled an orange for his son. “He loves me regardless of me having money or not.”
Starks, who works four hours a day at Walgreens, began to tear up. “Things will get better. I know it. I stay positive.”
Father and son finished their food, thanked the sisters and rushed out the door. Starks needed to drop Taylor off with his sister first. He works at different locations across the bay and on Thursday, he was expected in downtown Oakland for a 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. shift.
“Let’s go, my boy,” Starks called, as Taylor grabbed a bag of raspberry cookies for the road.
The sisters sell their baked goods at the Mission Farmers market every Thursdays to raise funds.
I walk past this address often including today and never noticed the soup kitchen. I guess it’s needed and good luck to them.
Tony Robbins is a snake oil selling huckster. His money is tainted and evil…..
Great story, Oscar,
I didn’t realize they’d actually finally opened and this is sweet.
Breed’s Urban Forestry or whatever did dynamite job on that block and 16th and Mission generally late in her term with planters and the splashy plaid crossing walkways her last year in office.
Now, with Lurie’s DPW cleaners reenergized and occasional Foot Patrol one starts to get some hope.
go Niners !!
h.