Feeding the hungry Feeding the hungry (December 19, 2003)

Open Heart Kitchen serves 50,000 meals this year
Jeb Bing

Walk down the chow line among scores of diners at Trinity Lutheran Church in Pleasanton who are having what's probably their only hot, nutritious meal of the day, and you'll see why Open Heart Kitchen is so important to our community and the Tri-Valley. Open Heart operates the only soup kitchen in the region. Not everyone in the line is poor and jobless, although many are. Most are seniors, single parents and out-of-work married couples with children, struggling to keep the family together during extraordinary hard times.

Still others are in uniforms from the fast-food places and hotels where they work. Their average wage is no more than $10 an hour, or about $20,000 a year.

"Subtract rent, utilities, clothing, medical and dental care, gas to get to work, child care and unexpected expenses, and there is not much left over for a nutritious meal in this, one of the most expensive areas of the country," said Nancy Richardson, vice president of Open Heart Kitchen.

Founded in 1995 by an interfaith ministers' council, Open Heart's mission is to provide nutritious meals without charge or qualification to the needy people of the Tri-Valley. In its first year, the organization served about 2,500 meals. That doubled the following year, but it wasn't until the recession years in late 2000 and 2001 that the number of meals exceeded 10,000. Last year, Open Heart served a staggering 27,000 meals at Trinity and its main location, Asbury Methodist Church on East Avenue in Livermore. Richardson expects the numbers to reach 50,000 this year.

Between the two church locations, Open Heart serves about 700 meals on a weekly basis, from 2 to 6 p.m. on Fridays at Trinity, and from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Asbury Methodist. All meals are made from scratch by volunteers, with most of the cooking taking place in the commercial kitchen at Lynnewood Methodist Church in Pleasanton and then transported to the two other churches in a specially equipped delivery van. Much of the food, including rolls, bread and desserts, is donated by area supermarkets and companies that have cafeterias, enabling Open Heart to serve a complete meal for less than $1.50.

To meet rising demand, Open Heart plans to open a third facility at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Livermore, which is located on North Livermore Avenue midway between Marylin Avenue and Portola elementary schools. Richardson said the neighborhood is "one of the highest poverty areas in the county."

This year, Open Heart launched its "Roadrunner Project" to help students in under-performing schools like Marylin Avenue. Teen volunteers prepare weekend box lunches in Open Heart's facilities and then distribute them to the schools for the students and their parents to enjoy over the weekend. This month, about 650 box lunches were being given out every Friday.

The organization will expand this program to other schools in Livermore and Dublin next year to children who qualify for subsidized lunches. At the same time, Open Heart plans to open its fourth soup kitchen in Dublin in 2004.

Barbara Thomas, executive director of Open Heart Kitchen, said the organization serves meals to anyone in need without qualifications. At first, those who suddenly find themselves out of work and mostly out of money hesitate to take advantage of a soup kitchen, envisioning it as a humiliating step down in their despair, Thomas said.

"So they're pleasantly surprised when they walk in to a smiling group of volunteers who greet them, ask no questions, dish up a warm, nutritious meal and then have them sit at tables where there's always friendly conversation," she added. "The atmosphere is so different than what they have been through at other services where they have to wait in lines to qualify and justify their needs."

Thomas knows many of her "guests," as she calls them. One family with teen-age sons started coming to Open Heart after the father was injured on the job. About the same time, his wife was laid off from her position and the family went without income for nearly three years, exhausting their savings and borrowing money to keep making the payments on their home. A few weeks ago, the wife was offered a new job and the first in a series of disability payments started arriving for the father. They're now contributing to Open Heart instead of relying on its soup kitchen for their evening meals.

Another woman in the food line was also making one of her last visits. Tossed out of her home by a drug-addicted husband, she also lost her job. By taking her main meal at Open Heart's facility, she was able to keep costs low enough to afford a modest rental. Through Thomas' help, she found a new job in Human Resources, her specialty.

"Everyone needs to understand that the hundreds of people we serve are not homeless people," Richardson said. "They are the working poor who are working one or two jobs and, even then, at the end of the day, they have just enough to pay their rent and utilities and for the gas they need to drive to work. Some work at restaurants where they don't get free meals, so they come to us on their breaks."

According to Richardson, the number of people living in poverty in the Tri-Valley has risen 26.6 percent, from 4,921 in 1990 to 6,229 in 2000. This amounts to 3.9 percent of the total population in the region. Statistics based on the 2000 Census also show that 6,788 households in the Tri-Valley in 2000 had incomes under $30,000.

Eileen Morley, director of Human Services in Pleasanton, said that while the 2000 Census did not specify the number of poverty-level households in Pleasanton, "we know for sure that with the economic downturn and the implications of so many of our wage earners having had jobs in the dot.com industry that we are experiencing families that are living at risk and having to make hard decisions to stay in Pleasanton for the sake of their children."

"That's why we are delighted to have Open Heart Kitchen here because it allows people to maintain dignity and anonymity," she added. "It deserves our support."

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