Demand is up for this year's Glide Memorial grocery giveaway

People waited in line for about two hours, sometimes in the rain, for Glide Memorial's annual holiday grocery giveaway in San Francisco.

"Every year I am in awe by the line. I am overwhelmed by the line. Because it represents something bigger that is happening in our city which is that the need is growing more and more the struggle is growing," said Glide's CEO Karen Hanrahan.

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Volunteer and Board member Crickette Brown Glad points out that the fresh food being offered today is tough to find in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood.

"If you go into many of these stores, it's booze and cigarettes and so we'd like to see more fresh food in these stores available to those with low income. And this is an opportunity for us to say 'if you have a need, come. Please come," she said.

"One in 4 people struggle to feed themselves here in San Francisco. It's a statistic that is not getting better. We know a bag of groceries is not going to solve the problem of food insecurity. We work on more sustainable solutions, helping people feed themselves, get access to more nourishing meals," said Hanrahan.

They expect to hand out 1700 bags of groceries at the church today. Volunteers will also take about 2500 bags out into the neighborhoods and the homeless encampments.