Faith-Based Meetup Distributes PB&Js To The Castro's Hungry
“We can’t cure homelessness,” said Pastor Megan
Rohrer. “But we can still be present and be visible out in our
community. That was a big part of why we wanted to start having these
gatherings.”
Rohrer helps to organize the San Francisco Faithful LGBTQ Meetup. The group comes together weekly for everything from bison walks in Golden Gate Park to wine tastings to wonton-making demos.
But its most visible contribution is on Sunday afternoons, when members
make 150 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and distribute them to the
Castro’s homeless.
“It’s an opportunity for us to wear matching T-shirts, to
let people know that people of faith are LGBT, and that we can be doing
good things,” said Rohrer, who was the first openly transgender pastor
ordained in the Lutheran church. Rohrer has been an advocate for
homeless LGBT San Franciscans for more than 15 years.
“We really wanted to make it a safe space for anybody of
any faith to do good work,” said James Rowley, who co-organizes the
Meetup with Rohrer. Within a few days of creating the group, over 75
people had signed up; about 12 people turn out for any given meeting.
The group decided to distribute PB&J "because it’s
nutritious, it doesn’t spoil, and we can give [the homeless] two or
three of them and leave them with them, whether they’re sleeping on the
side of the street or we have a conversation with them.”
The nutrition is particularly important for homeless people
who are HIV-positive. "They need protein, and a lot of the ways that
they can get really sick is if their muscles kind waste away,” Rohrer
said. “We wanted to make sure that there was a lot of protein, but also
to respect the crunchy lesbians who also wanted something vegan.”
The group gets most of its supplies—bread, peanut butter,
jelly, sandwich bags, hand wipes—from Grace, although the Meetup is not
affiliated with the congregation. “It’s not costly, peanut butter and
jelly,” Rohrer said.
The Meetup group gathers inside St. Francis Church, located
right across from the Safeway on Market Street, on Sunday afternoons.
“We walk up from the Safeway at Church Sr. and then we go all the way
down to Castro and 18th. By then we’re usually out of sandwiches,”
Rohrer said.
"That neighborhood has more homeless people than other
parts of town, because San Francisco figures out how they’re going to
divide up homeless services based on police districts," Rohrer said.
“The neighborhood that gets the most complaints on the non-emergency
police number gets the most homeless resources for that month.”
“The reason why we start at Church Street is because that’s
the dividing line between four different police districts. A lot of
people gather in that neighborhood because instead of getting pushed
along too far, [police will] say, ‘Cross the street, that’s the other
police district, and then they’ll have to deal with you.’”
Rohrer and Rowley say this area also attracts a lot of LGBT
homeless people, who want to be near the company and safety of fellow
LGBT individuals.
However, not every sandwich is given to the homeless. If
the group gets to 18th Street and still has sandwiches, they head to
Dolores Park. According to Rowley, mothers with fussy children have
stopped members of the group and asked for a sandwich. “We’ve stopped a
couple of tantrums at 4 in the afternoon,” said Rohrer, laughing.
“The whole event is two hours: an hour to make [the
sandwiches], an hour to give [them] out to people, and then we spend an
hour having a drink together at Harvey’s,” Rowley said. “We’re not
preachy.”
Rohrer is no stranger to the neighborhood’s homeless
population. The transgender pastor goes out from 10pm to 4am with other
local pastors about three times a month, as part of the city’s night
ministries. “When I go out, I usually walk through the Castro, so I know
a lot of their names and their stories and what they look like when
they’re not wanting to be talked to. So I usually can give a little
heads-up.”
“With all the hate-filled rhetoric that’s happening in our
world right now,” Rohrer said, “it feels good to have a positive outlet.
What I’ve noticed working with the homeless in San Francisco is that
whenever there’s homophobia or transphobia in other parts of the
country, we get more LGBT homeless folk in San Francisco. They think 'At
least they won’t discriminate against me there, even if I can’t afford
the housing.'"
“We’re trying to think of ways, particularly as people of
faith, that if there are people that get kicked out of their homes or
churches that are not being supportive of LGBT folks in other parts of
the country, ways that we can care for our community and make it so that
they don’t have to get to the rock-bottom lowest space before they’re
able to figure out their housing situation,” Rohrer said.
If
you’re around the neighborhood on Sunday afternoons between 2-4pm and
you see a group of people passing out sandwiches and wearing blue
t-shirts that say “Live Generously” on them, don’t be confused. The
Meetup is always looking for new members.
“We’re trying to get other people involved,” Rowley said,
“to get together, go out to Harvey’s afterwards, and have a good time.”
The San Francisco Faithful LGBTQ Meetup's next peanut butter and jelly gathering will be this Sunday, May 22nd. Check out the group's Meetup page for a list of events.
KITTREDGE CHERRY