Tenderloin residents: Do you remember that time you went looking for a certain food item? You searched the shelves at the nearby store, and maybe you gave in and asked the clerk, only to discover they didn’t carry it?
Maybe you checked other stores and they didn’t have it either?
We want to know what that food item was.
We mean it! If you have a minute, email hello@tlvoice.org and tell us. Or you can comment below this story. If this has happened for more than one item, list them all. Feel free to add other information, like why that food matters to you or when you last came across it. Or, if it was a non-food item that you hoped to find at a grocery store, let us know about that too. We hope to get enough responses to merit a follow-up story about this. (So send this article to someone you know!)
You’re not the only person to come home empty-handed, yearning for a flavor you couldn’t find. The Tenderloin is well known for its limited grocery options. Some people even call it a grocery desert. There are many small markets, and several shops serving local immigrant communities. But overall the Tenderloin has less variety and often higher prices than what big or chain stores can offer. The Heart of the City Farmers’ Market offers a diverse bounty, but operates only Wednesdays and Sundays for limited hours. Yes, there’s a Trader Joe’s in the next neighborhood to the north, Nob Hill, and another east of the Tenderloin near Powell Street BART Station, but those can be too far for people with mobility challenges.
Sign up for The Tenderloin Voice
Journalism for the Tenderloin, with the Tenderloin.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
The Tenderloin’s grocery problem has surfaced repeatedly over the years, in community meetings and discussions at City Hall. Two years ago, then-supervisor Dean Preston, who represented the area, raised the matter publicly and pushed to explore bringing a full-service grocery store here. Before that, the need for such a store was underlined in Vision 2020, a document laying out how the Tenderloin should change and evolve based on many surveys, community meetings, and conversations with denizens starting around 2017.
And it’s just come up again, at a recent meeting of the Tenderloin People’s Congress, a local group that tracks important neighborhood issues.
That day Paula Hendricks, a Congress stalwart — also a member of the O’Farrell Neighbors Group and a contributor to this news publication — asked the Tenderloin’s Supervisor Bilal Mahmood about the neighborhood’s grocery desert.
“Is there any way we can help you help us fix this?” Hendricks said.
“Yeah,” Mahmood said. “I’d love to learn what type of grocery stores you want, … [what] type of food you’re looking for.”
So if you’d prefer to tell Mahmood how you want the grocery landscape to change, you can email his office at MahmoodStaff@sfgov.org. Their main phone number is 415-554-7630, and you can find more contact information here.
Maybe you’re like Gregg Johnson, and you dream of purple waffles? If only Tenderloin stores offered the key ingredient: ube.
“Sure, Farmer’s Market is available several days a week, but how many times have I found an Ube Yam? None,” Johnson told me via email. “It’s those small things that can actually make a major difference.”
Ube (pronounced “oo-beh”) can be found in the Philippines. It has a thick skin, and slicing it open reveals a shock of violet. Many describe its flavor as nutty and mildly sweet.
Ube has become a trendy flavor in the U.S., but Tenderloin Voice co-director Daphne Magnawa — whose family hails from the Philippines — knows that many purple products billed as ube-flavored don’t hold a candle to the real thing, and she suspected that might be a supply issue. So she called up her mom, who said matter-of-factly: Ube is really hard to grow in most of the U.S., and thus a rare find in American stores in any form other than imported and frozen.
But that’s not to invalidate Johnson’s wish, and we agree with the sentiment behind it:
“The Tenderloin is a mix of many cultures and backgrounds. We should see just as many fruits and vegetables,” he said.
Another question that came up at this meeting of the Tenderloin People’s Congress: What kinds of businesses does the neighborhood need? If this matters to you, and you have things to say about it, comment below this story or email us at hello@tlvoice.org.
I'm a journalist who has reported for years on San Francisco topics like homelessness, housing, and governance. I co-founded News Relay Network, publisher of the Tenderloin Voice, where I write and edit. Reach me at noah@tlvoice.org.
