Food Pantry
@South Hayward Parish
We’ve maintained the name “South Hayward Parish” through these years, to ensure communication continuity for those who depend on South Hayward Parish. Now, as we look to update this facility and our programs, we’re bringing our name into alignment with our whole organization. “South Hayward Parish” is now simply “FirstPres @ South Hayward.” Other changes will be coming, too. But, our commitment to serving this community continues.
Food Pantry Closure News
August 2026
For more than 50 years, the South Hayward Parish campus has served our community through food distribution. In 2019, when the property was at risk of being sold, FirstPres partnered with the Presbytery of San Francisco to preserve the site as a community resource. We leased the property, continued the food pantry under the South Hayward Parish name, and ensured uninterrupted service to our neighbors.
Since then, we’ve worked with the City of Hayward and Alameda County to create a year-round Emergency Shelter for 25 unhoused neighbors, with a daytime Resource Center offering case management, meals, showers, laundry, and connections to healthcare and housing resources.
The growth of our services over these past 7 years has pushed the limits of this property and our financial resources, and required us to enter this year in discernment. We have worked and prayed to discern how to best steward our resources and live our mission to meet community needs, and it has become clear that operating both a food pantry and shelter on the same campus is no longer sustainable. Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue food pantry operations so we can focus fully on serving our unhoused neighbors. Our last day of food distribution will be August 14.
FirstPres will continue operating the South Hayward Parish campus as a 24-hour emergency shelter with expanded services. While the number of individuals we house can’t increase because of space restrictions, the programs we provide can become more robust, ensuring more guests are connected to housing more quickly, and therefore making a greater impact on the experience of homelessness in South Hayward. This transition will also greatly reduce site activity, relieving traffic for our immediate neighbors, and allowing our aging facility to continue serving until a long-term redevelopment plan can be realized.
We are immensely grateful to be part of this community, and grateful to the clients and volunteers who have allowed us to serve in this way. We look forward to love this community well, in the new seasons ahead.
