St. Mark’s contributes grocery, cash and supply donations to the Downtown Streets Team Food Closet located at All Saints Church, Palo Alto.
The Food Closet provides food security to low-income and unhoused community members in the Palo Alto area. In 2025, as of May, the Food Closet has served 8,179 clients and added 180 new clients. The Food Closet is stocked primarily from Second Harvest, and augmented by Whole Foods, Safeway, businesses and churches.
Unfortunately, in 2025 Second Harvest had $1 million in federal funds rescinded without cause and further federal cuts are expected. St. Mark’s contributions will be needed now more than ever – especially, as our food and cash donations fill specific food gaps on a weekly basis.
Urgent Needs: Second Harvest of Silicon Valley is the primary contributor of food to the Downtown Street’s Teams Food Closet. An update from Second Harvest: Currently, 1 in 6 neighbors in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties relies on Second Harvest for food and we expect those numbers to rise sharply. Second Harvest is providing food for about 500,000 people. This is an 80% increase over pre-pandemic levels.
With the recent passage of the federal budget bill, lawmakers have enacted the deepest cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in modern history. These cuts mean fewer grocery dollars and more empty cupboards. Seniors will be forced to choose between food and medication. Parents will skip meals to keep their children fed.
Second Harvest is calling on individuals and corporate donors to meet their campaign donations goal so that they can continue their services to Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. You can find out more about Second Harvest and how to donate at their website: https://www.shfb.org/.
Donate at St. Mark’s
You can donate items by bringing them to St. Mark’s and leaving them in the basket at the Outreach Table.
Most Needed Items:
15 oz. cans of green beans, peas, mixed veggies, whole corn
hearty soups including ramen noodles
Quaker style oatmeal
instant coffee
white sugar
dry pasta
dry cereal
jams & jellies
Non Food Items:
Grocery bags – brown paper with handles
Ziploc sandwich size bags
Donate Directly to the Food Closet
Drop off donations at the Food Closet
The address and hours are:
425 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto
M, T, W, F: 9 am-2:30 pm
Thursday: 9 am to 2:30 pm
(except 12 pm to 1 pm when closed for staff meeting)
.
Access is via the blue side door that opens onto Hamilton Street. Please call ahead – (650) 325-3663 to let them know you are coming. Please do not drop off food after hours – it brings up a variety of concerns as people often congregate unsafely after hours to go through the food.
Donate Online
Donations can be made online to Downtown Streets here.
Donate by Check
You can also donate by check. Check donations will be used to purchase needed shortfall items.
Please write a check to the Downtown Streets Team, and write in the memo line “For Food Closet.”
Mail checks to:
Project Manager
Downtown Streets Team
1671 The Alameda, Suite 306
San Jose, CA 95126