Tiny food stand grows, now keeps 300 families fed
A San Diego man’s springtime produce giveaway becomes a full-time source of aid.
SAN DIEGO — As residents were told to stay indoors to slow the spread of the coronavirus in March, Christian Ramirez used the extra time at home to tend his fruit and vegetable garden.
But eventually he ran into a problem. There was too much produce for his family to eat before it spoiled, so he offered it for free to nearby families in the Sherman Heights neighborhood.
Those families kept coming back; so did others. Now Ramirez, with the help of a handful of volunteers, operates a 24-hour community mutual-aid pop-up stand seven days a week from his frontyard.
The project he calls Table of Hope and Justice has grown from a couple of fruits and vegetables to large distributions of beans, potatoes, canned goods and COVID-19 protective equipment.
Its volunteers serve about 300 families a week, Ramirez said, who works as a policy director of the SEIU United Service Workers West union.
He said the growth of his project underscores the needs in areas of San Diego that have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s sobering,” Ramirez said. “A lot of the folks that come here are proud, hardworking folks that don’t ever ask for handouts.”
They’re not always neighborhood residents, he said; some are from National City, Chula Vista, El Cajon and Lemon Grove. Those areas have some of the highest daily rates of new confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Araceli Mauricio volunteers every day until the food runs out. She stood outside Ramirez’s house Wednesday afternoon organizing leftovers from the morning rush.
There were boxes of potatoes and bags of black beans and onions. They ran out of rice, bananas, carrots and noodles earlier that day, she said.
“People come from everywhere,” Mauricio said. “They are thankful that we are doing this because many need it.”
The volunteers get donations from local stores, organizations, neighbors and sometimes from their own gardens and pantries.
Ramirez said one day the volunteers were offered a donation of tomatoes from a grocery warehouse in Otay Mesa and later discovered a semi truck filled with tomatoes parked outside his home.
“It was sort of a miracle,” Ramirez said.
Shane Parmely, a middle school teacher in southeastern San Diego, volunteers to find donations.
She also worked with teachers to collect money and books for kids. Across from the food donations table were five cardboard boxes filled with books and some donated clothing for small children.
Parmely is thankful Ramirez opened his yard to this effort because she knows many students and families are struggling, she said.
“We know that our students aren’t eating right,” Parmely said, her voice breaking. “All the families surrounding Christian’s neighborhood are my students.”
Parmely said this crisis has been especially hard for students who come from immigrant families because many don’t have access to government assistance programs.
When they do, Ramirez said, some families still struggle to navigate the system. The demand at the food stand is a reminder of that, he said.
Yet, it’s nice to see people coming together, he said.
“All of that is happening in my frontyard,” he said. “It gives you that sense of hope that, although this community has been hard hit by the pandemic, people still laugh, share stories and recipes.”