A free grocery store opens in North County for homeless people

Brian Cecil picked out two bananas, a bag of kale and some red, white and blue cupcakes. He thought those groceries would last him two days.

A package of ground turkey, however, probably needed to be cooked sooner, perhaps that night. Cecil, 50, didn’t have a refrigerator. Nor did he have a place to live. All the food was about to be stored next to Cecil’s “bed,” which at the moment was the front seat of his Toyota Corolla.

Cecil was shopping Wednesday at Brother Benno’s new Indoor Market in Oceanside, a free shop for people living outside or those on tight budgets. The program launched early August and has already distributed more than 125,000 pounds of food to at least 969 individuals, according to staffers. On a recent weekday morning, a line of people could be seen waiting their turn to enter, including several women with babies.

“We wanted it be a supermarket experience, right?” said Paul McNamara, Brother Benno’s executive director. “We wanted to eliminate the feelings of scarcity.”

Food distribution isn’t new for the nonprofit. The group has long offered free meals and set out boxes of groceries for residents to search through. But the latter effort sometimes felt disorganized, leaders said. There were few limits on what people could take and it wasn’t unheard of for families to start lining up in the middle of the night to get first dibs.

In contrast, the market is all organization. Shopping carts are pushed along a one-way path. Signs on shelves detail how much of an item someone can take: Eggs (1), packaged fruit (2), pastries (3). Near the exit, a Costco-like checker ensures those limits aren’t broken. Staffers think they’ll ultimately move more than 2 million pounds of food this fiscal year.

The program begins as Brother Benno’s, like many nonprofits, is feeling pressure from two directions. Homelessness organizations around the region are facing cuts because of deficits at the city, county and state levels, and rapidly changing policies in Washington, D.C., could further upend what aid is available. Brother Benno’s relies primarily on private donors, but a shrinking social safety net may nonetheless grow the lines outside their building.

On the morning Cecil was shopping, 56 people walked through a different door to ask for help paying the rent.

At the same time, there have previously been complaints from neighboring businesses about trash left on sidewalks and the behavior of some individuals using Brother Benno’s services. “The immediate area surrounding Brother Benno’s has seen improvement, but continues to experience challenges related to parking congestion and street cleanliness,” Michael Gossman, Oceanside’s assistant city manager, said in an emailed statement.

Nonprofit leaders noted that they had made changes, including banning loitering and barring a few people from the site. Those waiting to get into the market stand on Brother Benno’s property, not the sidewalk, while security guards patrol the area.

The nonprofit created the 1,400-square-foot grocery store by adding a wall to its existing warehouse. Renovations cost about $324,000, which came from outside foundations and organizations, including Feeding San Diego. The food on the shelves is donated by a long list of local stores. Trader Joe’s chips in, as does Albertsons and Vons. Anything left over at the end of the day can be passed along to farmers or animal rescue groups.

The market is located at 3260 Production Ave. in Oceanside. It’s open from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. during the week and 8 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays. People may pick up groceries once they’ve signed up for a Brother Benno’s identification card, and leaders said most individuals served live in Oceanside. A little less than a third come from outside the city.

Cecil finished shopping, loaded the groceries into a cardboard crate and carried it all to his car.

The passenger door was partially destroyed — Cecil said he’d been T-boned — so there was no window to roll down before he set the food inside.

Cecil recalled that, back when he had housing, he regarded homeless people as “smelly” and up to no good. Now Cecil found himself on the receiving end of shaking heads whenever he walked into some traditional stores.

The absence of that kind of treatment was part of what kept him coming back to the staff and volunteers at Brother Benno’s. “I don’t think everyone here is paid, although they work like they do,” he said.