Local influencer Violet Witchel, best known for selling $20 bean salads and curating a lifestyle brand that screams Pacific Heights brunch energy, recently put out a call on TikTok asking people on EBT (that's Electronic Benefit Transfer, aka food stamps) to volunteer to be featured on her "Sunday Stock" segment. The series, up until now, has consisted of her interviewing wealthy influencer friends about what they buy at San Francisco grocery stores.

Let that marinate for a second. A woman whose content universe revolves around luxury shopping trips and overpriced legumes suddenly wants to spotlight low-income grocery hauls — not to platform those voices, but to fold them into her content machine.

As one SF resident put it bluntly: "This sounds like an attempt to exploit a low income person for personal gain and performative activism. There are already low income creators who share helpful meal recipes online and could use the content money more than her." That same person noted they tried offering constructive criticism directly — and got blocked for their trouble.

Meanwhile, Witchel was recently spotted at TheRealReal with photographers in tow, trying on blazers with gold waist chains. So the personal brand is thriving.

Look, nobody's saying wealthy people can't talk about affordability. But there's a difference between genuinely using your platform to amplify voices that struggle with food costs in one of America's most expensive cities — and treating someone's EBT card like a content prop for your TikTok algorithm.

San Francisco has real, devastating food insecurity. Families in the Tenderloin and Bayview stretch every dollar at corner stores with markups that would make Whole Foods blush. That reality deserves more than a cameo on someone's influencer reel sandwiched between $20 bean salad promos.

If you want to help, fund a community fridge. Donate to the SF-Marin Food Bank. Or at the very least, don't block people who point out the obvious.