Free campus grocery store helps tackle food insecurity at San Francisco middle school

A new food program at a San Francisco middle school has rolled out a free campus grocery store for students to take advantage of for themselves and their families.
The student store at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School is a collaboration among Amazon, the YMCA of Greater San Francisco, and the non-profit Goodr Foundation, which takes surplus food and delivers it to those in need.
Goodr CEO Marli Crowe was at the school in the city’s Bayview neighborhood Monday morning making sure the store’s debut would wow the students.
MLK Jr. students are the first on the West Coast to have a store packed with dairy, produce and shelf staples at their fingertips. Crowe says data shows this area of the city has become a food desert, making it difficult for kids to get a nutritious meal.
A lot of the families of these students, unfortunately, are economically disadvantaged,” said Crowe. “It’s a very diverse school, so I think we are feeding a lot of diverse students. So I believe the school is about 40% Asian and about 30% Latino so that’s what we encounter when we’re ordering stuff that is culturally relevant to them.”
The store will be available to students twice a month. Educators say they want to focus not only on academics but the child as a whole – when a child is hungry even the best teachers won’t help.
“[The students] can focus on learning and not on where their next meal is coming from, and they can focus on helping their families,” said Crowe. “We do see a lot of cases where a family will say hey, can you stop by the Goodr grocery store and get eggs and milk so that’s helping the student, the family, and they can focus on learning.”
Students at the school are excited and aware of how hard their parents have to work to put food on the table.
“I think it’s really important because some families are really struggling with groceries and, like, money,” said Olivia, a MLK Jr. student. “So, I think it’s smart for the school system to have a grocery store.”
The YMCA has pointed to the need in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood. Amazon says the store is an example of how the private and public sectors can collaborate to make a difference in disadvantaged communities. 
“Food insecurity is something no one should have to face in San Francisco and we have a vision for a community without hunger,” said Sally Kay, Amazon’s regional head of public policy and external affairs.
So starting this school year, MLK Jr. Academic students won’t have to travel far for nutritious meals. What they need is just right upstairs at their school.