It’s nearly 5 p.m., and Bruce Factor and Sigrid Roemer are handing out meals packed in clamshell containers from a makeshift window at Martha’s Kitchen. In just about an hour, the married couple has distributed 160 dinners to people who lined up at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish hall on Willow Street in San Jose.
“Volume like this is considered to be a slow day,” says Roemer.
She and her husband began volunteering at Martha’s Kitchen when San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo called on the public to help the city’s nonprofits that were responding to the deepening crisis wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. They volunteer serving dinner on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, eager to serve the clients who rely on Martha’s Kitchen to keep from going hungry.
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“The folks that come are grateful. They know each other, and they’ve gotten to know us,” Factor said. “We get a certain set of regulars, but really it’s across the board. Some days we get families, we get veterans, young people, old people.”
Joseph Cortez is one of them. A 36-year-old U.S. Army veteran, Cortez — who was born in the San Jose area — left his ex-wife and his 5-year-old daughter back in Texas to take an accounting and finance job in the Bay Area back in January. But when COVID-19 struck, he lost his job and became homeless.
He has chronic bronchitis, which puts him at high-risk for infection, and he’s told his daughter he can’t come home until there’s a vaccine. He has been eating meals at Martha’s Kitchen nearly every day for months.
“It’s good to see these services happening,” Cortez said. “Luckily, I can sleep on a friend’s couch, but other people are not so lucky.”
The $20,000 that Martha’s Kitchen is asking for from Wish Book readers would go a long way toward supporting those populations.
As the pandemic has cratered the Bay Area economy, Martha’s Kitchen Executive Director Bill Lee says the demand has doubled for the nonprofit’s services, which include preparing meals distributed by 77 partner agencies and providing grocery boxes for families in hard-hit areas like Gilroy and Hollister. By the end of the year, Lee expects Martha’s Kitchen to have given out more than 2 million pounds of groceries and prepared over 1 million meals, at a cost to the agency of about $2.50 a meal.
Lunch is served Monday and Friday, dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday, and breakfast on Thursday. On Wednesday afternoons, Dignity Health provides showers and laundry and Gardner Health brings its mobile health clinic.
“When COVID popped up, we saw some changes in the homeless population in San Jose. Some folks got housed, and we saw a reduction in some of the usual spots like St. James Park,” Lee said. “But a lot of people also ended up on the street. The worst of it has been in the South County, but we’re even seeing an uptick in Sunnyvale and the West Valley.”
On top of increasing the need for its services, the COVID-19 pandemic also has drastically changed how Martha’s Kitchen goes about its business.
Martha’s Kitchen was founded in 1981 by Louise Benson, who went from giving away peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to preparing and serving hot meals and friends at Sacred Heart in a lower-income neighborhood between downtown San Jose and more affluent Willow Glen. Today, it’s a much, much bigger operation and also serves as a clearinghouse for donated foods that are either used to make meals or repackaged into grocery boxes.
Normally, the church hall would be packed with diners who arrive — no questions asked — for a hot meal and a beverage, sitting elbow to elbow at cafeteria-style tables, chatting with volunteers and catching up with friends. But the onset of COVID-19 meant no more indoor service, with only takeout meals allowed. Some clients eat their meal sitting in the parking lot or standing by the fence on the side of the church hall.
The number of volunteers that can be in the building at any time is also restricted, Lee said, and everyone has to stay masked and socially distanced. Many of Martha’s Kitchen’s volunteers were older, and some just had to stay home as part of the population most vulnerable to infection. Younger volunteers filled the gap during the early months of the pandemic when nearly everyone was working from home, Lee said, but their numbers have dropped as people have gone back to work and kids are distance learning at home. (Volunteers can sign up at marthas-kitchen.org.)
“We need to take care of our neighbors, and these people are our neighbors,” Lee said. “We can’t change what’s going on in the environment out there. But if you throw enough drops in the lake, you fill the lake.”
THE WISH BOOK SERIES
Wish Book is an annual project of The Mercury News that invites readers to help their neighbors.
WISH
Donations will help Martha’s Kitchen provide hot meals to the homeless population, the unemployed, and families struggling to pay rent and buy food. Goal: $25,000
HOW TO GIVE
Donate at wishbook.mercurynews.com or mail in the coupon.
ONLINE EXTRA
Read other Wish Book stories, view photos and video at wishbook.mercurynews.com
