2023 Silver Medal: San Francisco Community Program Offers Aid to Small Businesses

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A trio of friends created a new model of community giving in San Francisco that has fed nearly three million people and helped rescue several hundred small businesses since the pandemic began.

In one day, Lenore Estrada, owner of Three Babes Bakeshop, dropped from 33 employees to six, as San Francisco sheltered in place two years ago.

"It was really devastating to lay everyone off," Estrada said.

How could small businesses like hers survive the pandemic?

She brainstormed with friends Jacob Bindman and Jenais Zarlin about how they could help others.

"How could we distribute the product that they already had in cold storage?" Bindman asked.

Zarlin added, "The kernel of the idea was how do we create this opportunity to keep small businesses from free fall into an emergency state?"

The trio launched SF New Deal in spring 2020, with a million dollar gift Estrada received in seed money.

She explained, "The first thing we decided to do was just buy food from the small businesses here in San Francisco, then deliver it to the people who are food insecure."

The nonprofit quickly exploded to feeding 55,000 people a week at its peak.

In two years, they've served everyone from senior citizens to COVID patients in quarantine to underserved folks at Humanmade who are training for entry-level manufacturing jobs.

Humanmade executive director Ryan Spurlock said, "The partnership with SF New Deal has been transformative for our participants' ability to get through the program and not have to think about where their next meal is going to come from."

As of February 2022, SF New Deal has given away nearly $33 million in government funds and private donations to more than 600 businesses.

Of those, more than 200 restaurants and food businesses have served nearly three million meals.

The partnership kept open and spared layoffs at Kristin Houk's three Bayview eateries, Tato, All Good Pizza and Cafe Alma.

"In those early months, probably 80 percent of what we were doing was New Deal," Houk said.

And she is grateful for New Deal's trio of co-founders for their big hearts: Bindman, who is Chief Program Officecr, Zarlin, who is Chief Impact Officer, and Estrada, who serves as Board President.

"They get out there, they do the work, they stay up all night, they're committed to ensuring everybody has a meal if they have to make it themselves, they'll do it. That's who they are," Houk said.

New Deal also provided debt relief to 400 other small businesses.

"We've been able to work with laundry mats, corner stores, preschools and all types of small businesses," Bindman said.

Now, the nonprofit's expanding its mission to support the city's small businesses long term, and help break down the barriers that they need to succeed.

SF New Deal is self-funding a pilot offering English and Spanish language classes.

"So now, we're looking to build on the work that we're doing," Zarlin said.

"Our goal was always to support the whole ecosystem of small businesses," said Estrada.

So for creating a new model of community care through SF New Deal, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Jacob Bindman, Lenore Estrada, and Jenais Zarlin.

Estrada's bake shop has not taken any funds from SF New Deal.