SCRAP buys Bayview building, secures permanent home after decades

SCRAP has locked in a permanent Bayview home, a rare real estate win for a San Francisco arts nonprofit that has spent 50 years keeping classroom materials, craft supplies and low-cost creative resources within reach. The organization bought a two-story building at 141 Industrial Street, just a few blocks from its current warehouse, and plans to reopen there in August 2026.

For teachers, after-school programs and families stretching tight school budgets, the move means more than a new address. SCRAP has built its reputation on selling donated art and craft materials at prices many schools and households can manage, while also supporting classrooms through giveaways, workshops and supply-sharing. The new site is expected to give the organization more room to serve those users without the uncertainty that has shadowed its Bayview base for years.

That uncertainty came from the building SCRAP has occupied for 25 years at 801 Toland Street, where it has operated inside a San Francisco Unified School District facility. The nonprofit has been paying just $1,240 a month for about 7,000 square feet there, but SFUSD’s 2024 bond work means that site is slated to be torn down and rebuilt along with 834 Toland Street as part of a new central warehouse and central kitchen project. SFUSD says its Student Nutrition Services serves about 40,000 meals a day, and nearly two-thirds of students rely on school food for most of their daily nutrition.

SCRAP’s purchase gives the organization a way out of that squeeze before construction starts, tentatively scheduled for late 2026. The new building, described as a former Baptist church property, will nearly double SCRAP’s footprint to about 26,000 square feet, with the transition expected in phases over the summer. For a neighborhood institution that has long been at risk of being displaced by redevelopment, the deal turns a temporary arrangement into a lasting base of operations.

The scale of that achievement is striking in a city where commercial space is expensive and often unstable for nonprofits. SCRAP was founded in 1976 by Anne Marie Theilen and Ruth Asawa to close an arts education gap by collecting donations and redistributing materials to teachers. A city Legacy Business Registry staff report calls it the nation’s oldest creative reuse center and says it diverts about 200 tons of soft salvage from landfills each year. The same report notes that SCRAP’s Bayview-Hunters Point service area includes communities where 92% of residents identify as people of color and 66% speak a language other than English at home, making the new home a meaningful investment in one of San Francisco’s most underserved arts corridors.