Hungry during the holidays Hungry during the holidays (December 09, 2005)

With the help of the Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund, Open Heart Kitchen provides hot meals "no questions asked"
by Rebecca Guyon

When Sharon Chrompton's husband passed away a year ago, she not only had to deal with the grief of losing her life partner, but she also struggled to adjust her finances now that she was on a limited income. It was then that Chrompton, a Pleasanton resident, started attending the Open Heart Kitchen hot meal service at Trinity Lutheran Church.

"It helps me stretch the budget a little bit," she said. "The people here are very nice and I hope to volunteer here someday when things are not so hectic."

Many people living in the Tri-Valley are in the same situation as Chrompton. With the high cost of living in the Bay Area, even those who are working struggle to make ends meet. For these families, food is usually the first thing to get cut, sacrificing nutritious meals, or having any meals at all, in order to pay rent, car insurance and other bills. That is why Open Heart Kitchen opened in 1997, providing hot, healthy meals to the working poor in the Tri-Valley.

"We are the richest country in the world, but we still have people in need," said Carol Beddome, executive director of Open Heart. "Just like what we saw in Mississippi and New Orleans (during Hurricane Katrina), in Pleasanton and Livermore, we have our own neighbors in need."

Open Heart provides meals at four sites in the Tri-Valley. From noon-6 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays, volunteers make and serve hot meals at Asbury United Methodist Church in Livermore. Meals include protein, starches, fresh vegetables, green salad, fruit salad, beverages and dessert. Across town, this same meal can be found from 4-6 p.m., Thursdays at Vineyard Christian Fellowship and Fridays at Trinity Lutheran Church in Pleasanton. Anyone can come to these sites and be served, no questions asked, and many times they are encouraged to take meals home with them since the serving sites are only open on certain days, Beddome said. At the Trinity Lutheran site, volunteers serve meals to 75 guests each week.

"People come not just for the food, but also for the social aspect," said Pat Deville, a volunteer at the Trinity Lutheran site who has been volunteering for nearly two years. "You see the same people all the time and really get to know them. It is such a great feeling to see how happy people are when they come."

Open Heart also provides meals to senior citizens in the community as part of its contract with the Area Agency on Aging. There are more than 306 seniors 65 years of age or older living below the poverty line in the Tri-Valley, according to the Open Heart Web site. More than 100 senior citizens are served at Ridge View Commons each week.

"One thing that strikes me is that the face of someone in need is very diverse," Beddome said. "It crosses all ethnic groups and age brackets."

To meet this need, Open Heart serves dinner for senior citizens 62 years of age or older from 4-6 p.m., Fridays at Ridge View Commons in Pleasanton. A donation of $2.50 is requested per person in advance, or $3 at the door, and the service includes a "senior-friendly" meal along with an all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar. The senior meals are somewhat different from the other services because volunteers make it a whole event, including regular entertainment and volunteers who serve the senior diners.

During the school year, Open Heart provides box lunches to low-income school children on Fridays so the children will have something to eat during the weekend when the school cafeterias are unavailable. Lunches are prepared by a team of teen volunteers and distributed to students from Marilyn Avenue and Portola Avenue schools in Livermore and the children of single parents at Arroyo Vista Community Housing in Dublin.

It's no secret what a valuable service Open Heart provides to the Tri-Valley. Their work is so much admired in fact, that the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce awarded Open Heart its Community Service Award for 2005.

As the only free meal service in the Tri-Valley, Open Heart expects to serve more than 125,000 meals by the end of 2005. One hundred volunteers offer their time each week at the sites, cooking the meals from scratch and helping serve. In total, Open Heart has an army of 300 volunteers who provide 10,000 meals a month. Each plate averages a cost of $2.50 to prepare, including food and operational costs, Beddome said. That means a donation of $100 to the Holiday Fund, which becomes $150 with the additional match by the Tri-Valley Community Foundation, provides 60 meals. With an operational cost of $300,000 a year, and as a private organization, Open Heart relies on donations from the community in order to provide its much-needed services.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.