SF church giving away 6,000 bags of holiday groceries

Glide Memorial Church of San Francisco expects to give away more than 6,000 bags of groceries on Wednesday as part of it's annual holiday grocery giveaway.

Wednesday was one of the coldest mornings of the year and yet there was a long line for the holiday giveaway at Glide Memorial Church.

Glide says the type of people they see come through for food include people who have jobs, but don’t make enough to make ends meet.

That includes seniors who are on fixed incomes.

Some people started lining up at 4 a.m. Wednesday to pick up a bag of free groceries.

The line stretched up and down Ellis Street, and around the block on Taylor.

Glide had to completely close the street to accommodate all the people, and set up barricades to organize the line of people.

Jean Cooper with Glide Memorial Church told KTVU, "Wages for the people we serve have not gone up. Social security - those checks don’t go up."

The senior citizens were able to pick up their groceries first.

People were able to choose between chicken or ham. There were also beans, rice, canned veggies and pasta.

A lot of the people Glide serves live in single residency occupancy units, and many of them don’t have an oven or even a kitchen.

Glide makes sure to include some microwave-friendly food options in the groceries.