DEMAND UP FOR MEALS
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.
“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.”
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.
“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.”