It's hard to be hungry It's hard to be hungry (December 17, 2004)

Many working poor depend on Open Heart Kitchen for a hot meal
by Jeb Bing

For the working poor, the Tri-Valley Open Heart Kitchen often provides one of their few hot and nutritious meals as they struggle to make ends meet in today's economy. And, for the estimated 10,000 residents in the Valley whose total family income of less than $18,000 a year qualifies them for this service, these meals may be the best they have on their limited income.

Open Heart's Executive Director Barbara Thomas said the organization served 90,000 meals during the first 11 months of 2004, up from 50,000 for all of 2003 and from 2,500 in 1995, when the Kitchen was established by an interfaith ministers' council. Housed in offices at Asbury United Methodist Church, 4743 East Ave., Livermore, where it also serves hot meals on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the service has expanded. Its Pleasanton Hot Meal Program operates from 4 to 6 p.m. every Friday in the Fellowship Hall at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1225 Hopyard Road, and on Thursdays at Vineyard Christian Fellowship, 460 N. Livermore Ave., Livermore.

Last year, the congregation at Vineyard Christian also dedicated two large rooms to Open Heart, which Thomas now uses for three large refrigerators and two freezers. The rooms are also available to other food-for-the-needy programs, including Tri-Valley Hunger Coalition and Tri-Valley Haven. Before the refrigerated storage rooms, donated food, such as turkeys, that exceeded demand during holiday periods could not be preserved.

Using volunteers and mostly donated food, the nonprofit Open Heart Kitchen prepares meals from scratch. Since not all of the serving sites have adequate facilities to prepare large numbers of meals at a time, the group uses the large kitchen at Lynnewood Methodist Church in Pleasanton, and then transports the meals to the serving sites.

Besides the three church sites, Open Heart also prepares weekend box lunches for the low-income students at Marilyn Avenue Elementary School, who receive subsidized lunches during school days. The box lunches are distributed on Fridays for the students to take home. Last summer, Open Heart also started preparing and distributing weekend lunches to those living in the Arroyo Vista housing complex in Dublin.

Thomas said Open Heart's budget for 2004 is $200,000, with meals costing about $1.50 per plate.

"That means that the funds we received from the Pleasanton Weekly's 2003 Holiday Fund bought supplies for 6,400 meals," Thomas said. "We're pleased to be part of the 2004 Holiday Fund, which we're sure will provide even more help for those in the Tri-Valley who need it."

Thomas said that Open Heart Kitchen is different from the soup kitchens found in most urban centers.

"We don't have the large numbers of homeless and those in despair that you find on the streets of San Francisco or New York," she said. "When you serve meals to 2,000 and more a day, as those organizations do, it's all you can do to prepare and serve the food."

"But for us, with fewer numbers, we have the time to prepare better meals and we have volunteers who are friendly, compassionate and have the time to make everyone feel welcome," she added.

"Our guests are also our friends, and we're always pleased when they find better work and can handle their food and other expenses on their own," Thomas said. "Even those on border-line poverty appreciate what we do for them. They'll volunteer to clean up after the meal service, and some, who have had a good week from tips or other income, will leave a $5 bill or so on the table to thank us for what we do."

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