TNDC has long taken a comprehensive approach to community development. In the Tenderloin, TNDC’s commitment to preserving the neighborhood also includes securing and sustaining critical elements of a healthy community, including increasing opportunities for youth, improving access to nutritious and affordable foods, and promoting thriving, culturally relevant retail.
Given the few outdoor spaces to play and inadequate number of youth programs in the neighborhood, TNDC’s Tenderloin After-School Program (TASP) was established in 1993 to provide children and youth with a safe and enriching environment staffed by caring adults, supporting their development with out-of-school-time programming after classes and during vacations.
Recognizing the limited availability of fresh produce, affordable food options, and cooking facilities in the Tenderloin, TNDC has sought to improve the supply of, and demand for, healthy food. In 2010, it opened the Tenderloin People’s Garden on a vacant city-owned lot. Neighborhood volunteers working in the garden harvest thousands of pounds of fresh produce annually to distribute to the community, at no cost. Today, TNDC has a thriving urban agriculture program with seven additional gardens in TNDC properties and two in development. It also operates two community food distribution sites outside of its properties.
The [corner stores] are community pillars. We want to make sure that they are a vital community resource for the people who live here.”—Jennifer Siswandi, Food Justice Leader, TNDC’s Tenderloin Healthy Corner Store Coalition
The Tenderloin Healthy Corner Store Coalition, a TNDC program implemented by resident food justice leaders, converted five Tenderloin corner stores to increase the availability and visibility of healthy produce. The food justice leaders “grade” the neighborhood’s markets, producing scorecards that inform residents’ choices, and the initiative has shown that offering healthier choices can be profitable for store owners. Beginning in 2012, TNDC augmented these environmental interventions with nutritional education and cooking classes to shift community knowledge and behaviors to increase demand.