Sponsored link
Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Sponsored link

Arts + CultureCultureChef Joanna Karlinsky: Best of the Bay 2020 Editors'...

Chef Joanna Karlinsky: Best of the Bay 2020 Editors’ Pick

She made hundreds of meals in her kitchen for the unhoused and distributed them throughout the community.

From the end of 2020 and into 2021, we’re publishing our Best of the Bay 2020 Editors’ Picks, highlighting some of the tremendous people, places, and things that made the Bay Area shine during one heck of a year. View more Editors’ Picks, plus our Best of the Bay 2020 Readers Poll winners and our Readers Stories of Resilience here.

Joanna Karlinsky has long been both compassionate and resourceful when cooking more than needed for a particular service or meal—and when identifying other opportunities to share excess provisions with the unhoused. For years, the San Francisco chef, former restaurateur (her last restaurant Sweet Jo’s, located inside the city’s Jewish Community Center, closed in 2010), biscuit whisperer, and cancer survivor has brought perishables to Food Runners. But after she essentially lucked into a large food donation at an hour when the local nonprofit was closed one night, she filled her truck full of catering pans and handed out all of the food on the streets herself.

After spending the first few months of the pandemic cooking hundreds of portions of comforting and nourishing food out of her own kitchen for regular weekly disbursement in the hardest hit parts of town, Karlinsky received two nearly concurrent boosts from her community. Some friends started a social media fundraiser to bolster her efforts and raised nearly $10,000, and Bi-Rite Market owner Sam Mogannam offered her the use of his kitchen at the nonprofit 18 Reasons in the Mission District in the spring. 

The admirable strength and heart that Karlinsky has shown through the fact that she’s only been deepening her connection and commitment to doing this work at this particular time when it’s exponentially more challenging is a bright light for San Francisco.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Sponsored link

Featured

No words: Savor the Castro’s last moments as movie palace with “A Day of Silents”

Start off with 10am all-cartoon bill, and stay for slapstick, swashbuckle, and romantical burlesque on the beloved screen.

Good Taste: Mochi crust to paneer pies, 2 pizza shops that aren’t serving your average slice

Mochiko Mochi Pizza and Mr. Singh's offer up some roundly innovative 'za.

More by this author

Score a beer with Tim Redmond!

Help us meet $30K in matching funds, and even score a 1-on-1 with our founder and editor extraordinaire

Win tickets to see Subatomic Sound System, Fri/4 at Sweetwater Music Hall!

Catch the dub-reggae legends as they swing into live action with Screechy Dan and DJ Sep.

Help us meet $30K in matching funds!

We need you to keep 48 Hills growing and thriving in a decimated independent media landscape
Sponsored link

You might also likeRELATED