Urgent News From the Food Closet. Thank you donors – last week a generous contribution of $20 was found in the little gingham-lidded Food closet donations jar. for the Food Closet. As noted before with the drastic cut back of Second Harvest’s food donations – the Food Closet is now predominately supplied by a few local groceries along with contributions of St. Mark’s and All Saints churches. The Food Closet keeps careful track of the number of customers it serves. The latest tabulation shows that customers have increased by 30 persons weekly. This number has continued to grow over the last week’s as Food Stamps have been recently eliminated for many as well. Of course, that tally is the actual shopper and does not reflect the numbers of family members each shopper may also represent. Please keep up the good efforts and know how important your contributions to the community are – especially now.
Volunteers Needed: Helping hands are needed at the Downtown Streets Food Closet. No food preparation skills are needed – the FC distributes free donated and predominantly prepackaged food to its customers. Needed skill set for a volunteer is a pleasant, patient person with good social skills. Fluency in Mandarin would be beneficial as well. High school students over 15 are welcome to serve too. All Covid protocols are strictly enforced. Volunteers must be vaccinated and boosted.
Available volunteer openings are:
Monday and Wednesday – 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.***
Tuesday and Thursday – 12:00 – 2:30 pm.***
Friday – 12:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Please contact Charlotte Coker at (408)591-7539 or charlotte.ca413@gmail.com for *** these days.
Contact Shirley Reiter at (650)704-9813 or shirleyreiter@yahoo.com for the other days.
Drop off donations at the Food Closet. The Diocese allows food pantries to remain open during Covid. All Saints Food Closet is taking precautions to protect staff, volunteers, customers and donors using a protocol from Second Harvest, the main Food Closet donor. The address and new 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 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.
Donating 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”. Checks can be mailed to: Project Manager Downtown Streets Team, 1671 The Alameda, Suite 306, San Jose, CA 9512
Current Food Donation Requests
Creamy or crunchy peanut butter (not the oily organic kind please)
Fruit in small plastic cups
Ramen in packets
Instant coffee
15 oz canned corn
Sugar
Non-food items:
Brown grocery bags with handles (please no department store bags)
Plastic grocery bags with handles also OK
Ziploc bags: sandwich