Advent is the time at St. Francis’ Episcopal when we celebrate Santa Lucia and raise money to fund our St. Francis’ Food Pantry. As we all know, this has been a year of challenge and change. Our Food Pantry distribution stopped after March 11th in accordance with San Francisco city guidelines and Diocesan guidelines. We do not know when we will be able to safely return to serving clients on church grounds. Meanwhile, St. Francis’ has continued sending our $750 monthly donation to the San Francisco Marin Food Bank in order to support the monumental effort of providing food to those in need during the pandemic. The Food Pantry leaders want to continue this financial support in 2021 at the current $750 monthly level. Roughly 80% of our clients have been receiving food during the months that we have been closed. Some have gone to temporary outdoor pantries, some have transferred to other pantries, and those over 65 are receiving food deliveries at home. Even though we are not physically distributing the food, our financial support is crucial to the Food Bank’s ability to get food to the large number of people in need.