Before the pandemic, three times every day, a long line of people queued along Taylor Street to enter the side door of GLIDE Memorial Church.
They waited to enter GLIDE’s bustling dining room, where the organization offered free breakfast, lunch and dinner to people from all walks of life. Volunteers served meals to those gathered with compassion and respect.
Now, like so many other aspects of life that require in-person gatherings of people, GLIDE has had to reinvent and transform how it gets food and other services to people who need it.
GLIDE, at 330 Ellis Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, describes itself as a “place of hope, meaning, and purpose.” The “nationally recognized center for social justice” is on the first line of defense, “addressing some of society’s most pressing issues, including poverty, housing and homelessness and racial and social justice.” Because of the pandemic’s effects in San Francisco, increasing numbers of people need support; non-profit organizations are still learning to adjust to this new world.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, GLIDE was an open building. According to Tori Pinto, the leader of the volunteer program at GLIDE, clients, in addition to coming to the building for food, “would come, check-in at the Walk-In Center and get resources around hygiene or emotional support, referrals to other organizations, case management, housing support and other services.”
GLIDE, before COVID-19, ran almost entirely on volunteer support. Pinto shared her initial thoughts back in March about how the organization was going to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think that for everybody there was a lot of fear. Trying to figure out as an organization with radical inclusivity being one of our main values, I was concerned about how we were going to adapt in a way that still allowed for that,” Pinto said. GLIDE needed to work out how to continue their social service programs when they relied mainly on volunteer support.
One of GLIDE’s focuses is caring for the SF Bay Area’s homeless which, according to The New York Times, number over 28,000 people. The number of homeless people — and families — has been exacerbated by the pandemic, yet many homeless shelters across the city have had to closed. The result is a 285% increase in the number of tents the homeless have set up for shelter in the Tenderloin District since the start of the pandemic, according to the Tenderloin Neighborhood Plan for COVID-19.
To reduce the risk of community spread disease and help those living on the streets, GLIDE distributes hygiene kits which include sanitary products like hand soap, masks and other supplies to those in need in the Tenderloin and in neighborhoods across the city.
Moreover, GLIDE’S food program is a key part of their work for the homeless and for other persons in need in San Francisco. According to the website, GLIDE distributed around 2,000 meals a day before the pandemic. GLIDE’s staff teamed with substantial numbers of volunteers to make this happen. However, public health rules to mitigate the pandemic required all involved (diners, staff and volunteers) to practice social distancing. GLIDE’s indoor dining area had to be closed.
GLIDE discovered ways to continue its daily free meals program. In fact, Pinto stated that they are serving over 1,000 more meals a week than they did pre-pandemic. Volunteers continue to work with the Meals Team but their jobs look a little different. Now they are preparing hot boxed and bagged meals and distributing them to clients out of doors.
GLIDE built a resource hub on the 300th block of Ellis Street. Ellis is now shut for the majority of the day. GLIDE uses the space as a distribution center to hand out hygienic products to combat the virus and as an outdoor dining room, a safe place for people to gather together and eat the meals that GLIDE provides. The Tenderloin Neighborhood Plan for COVID-19 states that the city plans to establish a safe sleeping area on Ellis in partnership with GLIDE.
GLIDE teamed up with Color (a company offering COVID-19 testing throughout California) and the San Francisco Department of Public Health to establish a COVID-19 testing site in the Tenderloin. The site provides free testing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, conducts contact tracing and offers social services if test results are positive.
The GLIDE staff, after redesigning all of its programs, is working to re-engage volunteers.
GLIDE has changed their volunteering registration and orientation to be online and is requiring a daily health screening of in-person volunteers before they come in for shifts, as stated by their website. GLIDE was once an open building but now only allows essential staff and volunteers inside their facilities. Pinto explained that to keep their volunteer pool consistent and limit the spread of the virus, they are working to form consistent groups, or “pods,” of in-person volunteers.
GLIDE is currently only accepting in-person volunteers over the age of 18.
But GLIDE is also provides online volunteering opportunities, and, of special interest to LWHS students, the online opportunities are open to those both older and younger than 18. GLIDE offers “ways to support students to complete their community service hours requirements for school remotely,” according to their website.
Pinto said, “I hope that we are able to bring students back soon and safely. That’s something that we definitely miss around here.”
Although GLIDE has been able to modify many of their programs to be over Zoom, Pinto says it’s difficult to provide the same level of care and help over a computer screen as in person. “There is something to be said about just a touch on the arm for someone who is going through something,” she said.
