In 2003, Abdo Nasser and his family found themselves on Treasure Island on an uncharacteristically warm San Francisco day. There as tourists, Nasser and his family grew thirsty and searched for a grocery store. However, as they roamed, it became clear there were none.
“My wife and I and the kids needed water — it was a hot day,” Nasser said in a recent interview. “There was no water, no snacks, nothing.”
Treasure Island has long been a neighborhood without a retail ecosystem because of its isolation from services available in the rest of San Francisco. While a massive redevelopment project is underway, it has not translated to basics like supermarkets.
Nasser saw an opportunity and approached the Treasure Island Development Authority board of directors. He was told that no long-term lease would be available, since big real estate development projects on the island were imminent. It wasn’t until 2008, Nasser said, that he was given a 600-square-foot “shack” by the lone road connecting the island to the mainland via the Bay Bridge.
Nasser quickly learned that residents wanted and needed more. He moved to a 3,000-square-foot location in 2012 before finally setting up Treasure Island Cove’s current location in 2016. More than two decades after Nasser first searched for a grocery store site, his remains the only one on the island.
While tens of thousands of people are expected to move there in coming decades, current inhabitants lack key resources. Ten percent of the island’s population suffers from food insecurity, according to a 2021 survey by One Treasure Island, a nonprofit social service organization. But food isn’t the only shortfall. The U.S. Census shows that 38% of residents there live below the poverty line.
Treasure Island residents are food insecure for a reason unique among San Francisco’s neighborhoods: geographic separation. Factors like the lack of retail infrastructure, constrained transit access and a history of neglect by city government all contribute to limited food availability. While developers include slick renderings of a future retail district including a full-service grocery store, they have not promised it will be built anytime soon. So island residents have found ways to adapt — through cooperation and self-reliance. Grassroots support has them feeding one another through a community garden, a food pantry and someday soon, organizers hope, an urban farm.
“They want their neighbors and friends and people in their neighborhood to have access to food,” said Nella Goncalves, executive director of One Treasure Island. “We know clearly that Treasure Island is a food desert. You have 2,800 people, two and a half restaurants.”
Spirits in the garden
Treasure Island neighbors use the garden to concoct fermented “fire cider.” Credit: Cami Dominguez / San Francisco Public Press
On a Saturday morning in 2019, Sara Rosencrans was walking to Treasure Island Cove for her weekly groceries when she noticed a small group of people working in a garden. Intrigued by the idea of connecting with the community and wanting to further develop a green thumb, she approached the group.
These plants and people would become Indigenous Permaculture, a group dedicated to revitalizing native and local communities at a grassroots level.
The group was the brainchild of Guillermo Vasquez, who noticed a craving for more fresh produce. He partnered with the Treasure Island Development Authority to launch the Indigenous Permaculture community garden in 2019, bringing the experience of running a garden in Oakland.
This effort is an attempt to solve a problem Nasser had also experienced serving a small customer base: It’s hard for him to predict how much to order before certain items run out, which then limits how much produce can be offered.
But the community garden cannot completely solve the produce shortage. One problem is the unusable soil. Treasure Island is built entirely on landfill, dating back to 1939, when the city hosted the Golden Gate International Exposition. Its use in World War II as a naval base added to the pollution plaguing many parts of the 400-acre island, requiring extra precautions to make gardening safe.
Vasquez and other Indigenous Permaculture volunteers brought soil from Oakland and a variety of planters, including empty tires.
To Vasquez, the garden goes beyond food security. It’s a way for residents to provide for themselves.
“We mix all the science, and also the tradition of science, together to respond to the challenges in the urban areas,” Vasquez said. “The way that we work is by empowering the community. You can see people stop and ask about the food, about the recipes. Empower them to eating healthy. Empower them to grow their own food and for them to be part of the community process.”
The group focuses on fresh vegetables and grains that can replace sweets and processed foods in islanders’ diets.
A small cohort of volunteers — seven at last count — grows various tea plants, fava beans, lettuce, onions and a variety of crops native to Korea and Oaxaca, reflecting Treasure Island’s diverse ethnicities. A greenhouse next to the main community center nurtures native plants before they are planted in the main gardens.
The benefits, Velasquez said, are not only nutritional but also spiritual.
From the last harvest of 2025, gardeners concocted an “elixir of life” known among herbalists as fire cider. The mix of herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables is believed to bring health benefits (though experts say there is limited evidence of it).
It is made by filling a jar with apple cider vinegar and burying it in the garden to ferment over the winter. The plan is to open it at spring equinox, when the tonic becomes concentrated, and add drops of it to hot water.
The group performed a burial ceremony in December, praying to Mother Nature for help in improving the community’s health.
Trekking for supplies
Rosencrans said that while she finds satisfaction in the garden and grocery store, she needs to get supplies in the city.
Residents often find themselves commuting to the city on public transit to get essentials, frequenting the Target in Metreon Mall or the Trader Joe’s at 4th and Market streets, both about a 15-minute walk from the only stop downtown, at the Salesforce Transit Center.
“You have to take a bus into the city and then walk three blocks, and then carry your groceries back another three blocks, and then wait for the bus to leave whenever the bus leaves,” Rosencrans said. “So it’s a whole afternoon trip to do groceries.”
The 25 Treasure Island bus is the only line serving the area. It starts and ends at the Transit Center, looping around the island every 20 minutes. But even when one times it properly, carrying large and heavy loads of groceries can take a toll.
“Sometimes, it’s just bringing enough book bags and then still having stuff that you got to carry, having to get on two different buses and just having to lug that around,” said Dominic Lindsay, a resident of the island for nine months. “There’s only one place, Treasure Island Cove, so sometimes that’s the only option, or if you just think ahead and order on Amazon or you go into the city.”
Food pantry doubles clientele
But for many residents, off-island food shopping is too burdensome or expensive. One Treasure Island runs a weekly food bank in coordination with the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. Established more than 20 years ago, the partnership provides access to fresh produce and non-perishables, with limited amounts of eggs, milk, bread and meat, every Tuesday.
One Treasure Island traditionally hosts a holiday craft activities event, but last December redirected its resources to distributing more essential items, including toilet paper and laundry detergent, given the hard economic times.
“Everything is more expensive and people’s salaries and pay is not going up at the same rate as groceries and basic supplies are,” Goncalves said.
One Treasure Island staff go to grocery stores to buy food items for seasonal celebrations, like hot dog buns and sausages for the Fourth of July.
Mychal Jones, an island resident for 13 years, frequents the pantry to help sustain his family with fruits and vegetables, saving the effort of going into the city and back.
“I don’t know how I’d get that for my daughter,” Jones said. “Coming here helps because it’s different every week, because we can choose and pick what we need.”
Goncalves, however, said she hopes the food bank changes into something that gives residents more autonomy, following the “client choice food pantry” model. She said residents often have to take certain food items that are prepackaged. Switching to more of a grocery store approach can bring dignity to the experience.
But any such changes must wait, as federal food program funding is under threat after the government interrupted support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. So the Food Bank is unlikely to start or expand any programs this year.
The Food Bank is addressing acute needs for people across the region. Its 2024 Hunger Report found that 77% of respondents to a client survey risked hunger. Years of high inflation have made it harder for Americans to afford groceries, increasing their reliance on food banks.
The Treasure Island food bank enjoys an extensive network of volunteers including new residents, local businesses and members of the Bay FC soccer team, which practices on local fields. It has nearly doubled in size, having originally served about 100 to 130 families before the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID taught organizers that people with mobility issues have trouble getting to the pantry in person. So volunteers make deliveries via carpool, taking bags of food to people’s front doors.
When people come to volunteer, Goncalves added, “it’s kind of a feel-good time, where you have people helping people with a basic need, which is food.”
Garden, meet farm
According to Treasure Island Development Authority’s president, V. Fei Tsen, an urban farm was always part of the original Treasure Island master plan.
The plan allocates 13 acres in the center of Treasure Island for farming. Originally the plan set aside 25 acres, but part of that was turned over for a training facility for Bay FC, as well as a potential site for a job training program, Allison Albericci, the development authority’s major sites principal planner, said at a November agency meeting.
After her team studied various Bay Area farms and community gardens, the agency concluded that an urban farm would promote equity, food security and ecological services such as native plant cultivation.
While other parks are planned for the island, the farm’s focus on food production prioritizes recreational, therapeutic, educational interpretive programs. The final land distribution is to be determined. A committee of the agency is due to make some of these decisions in February.
Treasure Island Cove remains the only retail food option as a massive development begins to transform the island, adding what will be more than 8,000 homes in a cluster of residential towers, townhomes and apartment blocks.
The island’s developers have plans on paper for more robust retail options, but timelines are ambiguous. A recent planning and design roadmap for Treasure and adjoining Yerba Buena Island, published in 2024 by the development authority, includes plans for a food market hall and grocery store near Treasure Island’s main vehicular entryway. Part of the “retail main street,” the food complex’s ground floor would be occupied by restaurants, shops and cafes.
The proposed grocery store would be full service, selling perishable items, frozen foods, dry goods, household products, baked goods, coffee, cheese, meat, seafood and artisanal goods, and it would possibly include an establishment serving alcohol.
However, the schedule for this project has not yet been disclosed. The Treasure Island Development Authority did not respond to comment about timelines.
Nasser has seen enormous changes since the day he searched in vain for refreshments as a visitor, and is happy that residents no longer have to scramble for essentials.
“You get to meet people from all over the world because this is a most diverse community,” Nasser said of running his store. “It’s been a fascinating journey.”