From Food Desert to Fresh, Affordable Food In the Bayview

Background
The Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, with its more than 35,000 residents, had no supermarkets that provided fresh, affordable produce and meats.  Residents had to go to another neighborhood, often by car, or eat snack foods from local corner stores, which leads to an unhealthy diet.

The Solution
To help recruit a regional full-service supermarket to the neighborhood, in 2021, NK Strategies, collaborating with San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development and Supervisor Shamann Walton’s Office, convened a consensus-building process that developed a broad framework that enabled the Bayview community to define food access problems and their solutions.  

NK Strategies convened and facilitated the Lucky Bayview Advisor Council to engage the community early and often to develop community consensus, and to identify key issues to address such as local hiring, limiting self-checkouts, security issues, and plaza improvements.  As a result, Lucky Bayview partnered with Young Community Developers to develop an effective employment program to hire employees for Lucky Bayview from the District 10 neighborhood.

The Result
On October 26, the Bayview Lucky opened to a community-wide celebration, attended by Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Shamann Walton and other dignitaries. In addition to fresher food, it offers job opportunities to local residents, with 90%of store team is from the Bayview community.