Starbucks Closes 23 La Boulange Locations For Sake Of Company’s “Long-Term Growth”

Three years after Starbucks purchased San Francisco’s La Boulange
bakery cafes, the coffee behemoth announced Tuesday that all 23 locations in
the San Francisco Bay Area will be closed by the end of September.

Starbucks officials released a statement Tuesday on the decision
to shutter the restaurants, explaining that if the company intends to reach
its “goals to grow its food business and deliver an incremental $2 billion in
the next five years in the U.S.” the La Boulange bakery cafes have got to go.

“Starbucks has determined La Boulange stores are not sustainable
for the company’s long-term growth,” according to Starbucks.

La Boulange’s founder Pascal Rigo sold his local bakery chain to
Starbucks in 2012 for $100 million.

While Starbucks will close La Boulange’s 23 locations, two
manufacturing facilities and the Evolution Fresh retail location in San
Francisco, the coffee retailer plans to continue serving La Boulange food and
using the brand in stores.

Starbucks says that it will help La Boulange employees find new
positions at Starbucks stores in the area.

Instacart Expands On-Demand Delivery Services To Food Deserts In Southeast Neighborhoods

Up until Wednesday, every San Francisco neighborhood had access to
the on-demand grocery delivery service Instacart, except the Bayview-Hunters
Point and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods, which are among the areas with the
most severe food deserts.

San Francisco Supervisor Malia Cohen announced that Instacart has
expanded its grocery delivery services to the Bayview-Hunters Point and
Visitacion Valley neighborhoods, areas of the city that perhaps need the
online company’s services more than anywhere else in the city.

“This is a matter of social justice,” Cohen said, explaining that
the residents in San Francisco’s southeast neighborhoods deserve access to
fresh food just as much as anyone else living in the city.

The city’s southeast neighborhoods, which tend to have residents
of lower incomes and have higher levels of crime than other neighborhoods in
the city, have long been considered food deserts by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.

Bayview-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley are considered food
deserts because residents in those neighborhoods often have to travel at
least a mile to access a grocery store where fresh and healthy food is
available, Cohen said.

With the expansion of Instacart’s San Francisco delivery area,
residents in those remaining neighborhoods will now be able to order
groceries via Instacart’s existing partners including Safeway, Costco, Whole
Foods Market, and Smart & Final.

Instacart’s San Francisco General Manager, Heather Wake, said the
company is looking forward to giving the southeastern neighborhoods access to
quality groceries on-demand.

Wake said Instacart is “thrilled to be able to expand our presence
to San Francisco food deserts.”

Other on-demand grocery delivery services that also serve San
Francisco, plus the southeast neighborhoods include Amazon Fresh, Good Eggs,
and Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery, among others.

Nation’s First Homeless Shelter For LGBT Adults Opens Today In Mission District

Jazzie’s Place, the first homeless shelter for lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender adults in the U.S., opened in San Francisco’s
Mission District Wednesday to help serve the housing needs of nearly a third
of the city’s homeless population who identify as LGBT.

Wendy Phillips, the director of Dolores Street Community Services
and Jazzie’s Place, said the new shelter is intended to be a space where all
shelter guests are treated with dignity and respect.

The shelter is named after Jazzie Collins, a transgender African
American woman who was an advocate for homeless LGBT folks prior to her death
in 2013.

Collins was also among those who helped dream up the LGBT shelter,
according to Tommi Avicolli Mecca, the director of counseling programs at the
Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco.

The new shelter, located at 1050 South Van Ness Ave., between 21st
and 22nd streets, has 24 beds for homeless individuals in the LGBT community.
Twenty-four beds, however, is unlikely to meet the demand for LGBT
housing in San Francisco.

Based on San Francisco’s 2013 Homeless Count, 29 percent of the
city’s homeless population identified as LGBT.

Those in need of shelter, and who are over 21 years old, will be
able to stay at Jazzie’s Place for up to 90 days, according to the Mission
Neighborhood Resource Center.

San Francisco Supervisor David Campos said in a statement released
Wednesday that he has been working to make this queer-friendly shelter a
reality since 2010.

“Our homeless LGBT residents deserve to feel safe and welcomed in
our shelter system, and the opening of Jazzie’s Place is an important
milestone,” Campos said.

Reservations for a bed at the new shelter can be made at the
Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, which is located at 165 Capp St. or by
phone at (415) 869-7977.

Weather Forecast For The San Francisco Bay Area

Today will be mostly cloudy with patchy fog and light rain. Highs
will be in the 50s to mid 60s. West winds could reach 10 to 20 miles per
hour.
Tonight will be mostly cloudy with patchy fog and light rain after
midnight. Lows will be in the lower 50s. west winds could reach 5 to 15 miles
per hour.
Friday will be mostly cloudy with patchy fog and light rain
possible. Highs will be in the upper 50s to mid 60s. Southwest winds could
reach 5 to 15 miles per hour.

(News Roundup Via Bay City News)