A Haight-Ashbury soup kitchen that served as many as 450 people a day for a quarter-century closed Friday, a casualty of dwindling federal grants and donation money.

Directors of the Haight Ashbury Food Program said they eventually hope to resurrect a similar but much-scaled-down food safety net for the homeless, disabled and working poor in the neighborhood.

"Everyone is talking about how the economy is down, and they can't give (donations), but more people are losing their jobs, rents are going up - it's a horrible irony," said Executive Director Michael Scribner.

At its peak several years ago, the program had an annual budget of just under $500,000 and four full-time and two part-time staffers, Scribner said. In addition to serving hot meals four days a week, the program ran a noteworthy culinary training course that helped about 200 people land jobs at catering companies and in hospital and university kitchens.

The cooking school, however, grew pricy and inefficient, Scribner said. After the rent on the church basement space tripled to $50,000 a year in 2006 and the federal government slashed aid last summer, the program cut the culinary school and reduced its services to one hot meal a week and brown bag service. The nonprofit limped on from there; but without additional funding, it was clear by late last year the program would have to shut its doors, Scribner said.

On Friday, volunteers emptied the center's pantry and handed out lists of other soup kitchens and food banks.

Aside from providing food for the needy in the neighborhood, the center at 1525 Waller St. was also an important gathering place, according to Gary Barbaree, who was pastor at the Hamilton United Methodist Church, which housed the food program in its basement.

"There was food, but also community - you felt that right away," said Barbaree, who has been tidying up loose ends since January, when the church closed.

The heart and soul of the program, Judy Woods, walked into the center 14 years ago, homeless and an addict, Scribner said. After volunteering for years, she rose to become food service project director, and did a large amount of the program's community outreach.

Barbaree said the church, which his research shows was designed by famed architect Julia Morgan, will not be sold. But the owner, the trustees of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church, would like to see a community services center there.

In fact, a reimagined Haight-Ashbury Food Program would be a welcome tenant, Barbaree said.

To that end, Scribner and his board will be brainstorming in coming weeks and months in order to figure out what kind of organization the neighborhood could support, whether a food pantry service, nutritional counseling or community garden outpost.

"The board wants to work with the community to find out what the food needs are, and what is a potentially sustainable model," Scribner said.