More recently, CHEFS has begun to cater meals for tech companies that have moved into the mid-market and Tenderloin neighborhoods after receiving big tax incentives from the city. In order to receive a payroll tax cut, companies need to form community benefit agreements, or CBAs, contracts with the city that show how they’ll contribute to their new neighborhood.

Software company Zendesk was the first to add CHEFS to their CBA back in 2011. Zoosk, Zynga and Yammer followed. According to their annual community benefit agreements report, last year Zendesk spent just under $100,000 in donations and hiring local businesses. $3,500 of that went to CHEFS.

Homeless San Franciscans serving tech workers lunch is an interesting juxtaposition. Critics of the mid-market tech revitalization argue that it's the the tech companies that are driving up rent and contributing to even more homelessness. But CHEFS culinary training manager Al Leddy says this is an effective way to bridge the gap between rich companies moving into poor neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, and the existing residents, many of whom are in shelters, transitional housing, or living on the street.

Al Leddy explains the snacks his CHEFS students made for Yammer employees. Credit: Angela Johnston

“It's definitely working,” Leddy says. “The students get to come in, they get to meet people that work in high tech, and most importantly they're treated with respect, which goes a long way for them.” It’s extremely important, he says, to create this initial connection.

“The food is just outstanding,” says Cristina Akimoff, the community liaison in charge of maintaining Yammer’s relationship with the neighborhood and nonprofits like CHEFS.

Akimoff says she would like to have CHEFS come in more consistently; weekly or twice a month, rather than once a month for an event. Part of that would involve restructuring Yammer’s community benefit agreement.

“I'd really like to narrow it down so that we're not stretched so thin, so we can really hone in on two or three really great organizations like CHEFS and make a big impact there instead of tiny impacts in a bunch of different places,” Akimoff says. This has been a common critique of the mid-market community benefits agreements - parachuting into a nonprofit for a day, serving breakfast, or reading to kids, and then moving on to the next one.

A Yammer employee adds some stuffed mushrooms to her plate. Credit: Angela Johnston

With CHEFS, in some cases, you can already see a small impact. Mobile gaming company Zynga has hired a few homeless CHEFS graduates to work in the startup’s massive kitchen, assisting their in-house butcher, baker, and brewer. A few weeks ago, the current class took a field trip to Zynga’s kitchen to hear from the former CHEFS students who now work there.

But for the people who actually live, and cook breakfast, lunch and dinner in the mid-market and Tenderloin neighborhoods, a nutritious, and filling meal is still difficult to come by. There isn’t a full service grocery store in the Tenderloin. The district has the city’s highest concentration of convenience stores -- places more likely to sell potato chips and alcohol than apples and whole wheat bread. And according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the ratio of unhealthy to healthy food retailers here is 97% to 3%.

Although some tech companies have vowed to help fix this food desert problem in their new neighborhoods, data shows that most nonprofit programs are unable to sufficiently meet the current food and nutrition needs of the city and the Tenderloin. A 2012 study conducted by Stanford and the San Francisco Food Bank estimates that there were over 63 million “missing” meals, or unmet food need, in San Francisco in 2010.

“We're just one ripple in the giant pond. We are very clear that we aren’t here to be heroes. We aren’t here to have the big solution that answers everything. We just want to be the person that helps the person in front of us and show people that we value the talent that they are literally bringing to our table,” says Tiffany Apczynski, a community liaison with Zendesk and the first person to bring CHEFS to a tech company kitchen.

Safia Bubakar serves a meal to an employee at Zendesk. Credit: Angela Johnston

Back at Yammer, Victoria (who did not want to give her last name), a student halfway through the program, lays down the final tray of stuffed mushrooms on the stainless steel counters. She tells me when she graduates from CHEFS she’d much rather cook for a startup than a restaurant because they pay better. The program has managed to give her and other people in transition more opportunities to get out of shelters and out of poverty, but there’s still bigger issues created by the tech boom, she says.

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From Shelters to Startups: CHEFS Program Helps Homeless by Cooking for Tech Companies