“As a soup kitchen in the last 40 years, our forte is focused on serving hot meals to those in need, as well as distributing groceries all over Silicon Valley,” shared Bill Lee, Executive Director at Martha’s Kitchen (MK).

Located between downtown San José and Willow Glen lies a “little soup kitchen” which was started in 1981. Founder Louise Benson and her friends started Martha’s Kitchen on the premises of the Sacred Heart Church serving hot meals to those in need.

Today, Martha’s Kitchen continues the tradition of serving meals to those hungry and also in the homeless communities. Martha’s Kitchen currently distributes 100,000 hot meals and 250,000 pounds of groceries each month.

At its Willow St. location, MK is not only a soup kitchen and a central kitchen that prepares meals for other sites, it also serves as a clearing house of produce, meat, poultry, frozen and baked goods from grocery stores and produce markets. Volunteers then sort through these donated goods, keeping the usable goods for meal preparation, and sharing any surplus with partner agencies.

Collaborating with other organizations, they are able to send out over 1,200,000 hot and cold meals annually to over 77 other non-profit organizations in Santa Clara county and other surrounding counties.

Since the start of Covid-19, Martha's Kitchen has provided more meals, more services, and more groceries to those in need every month according to Lee. With homeless increasing in the downtown San José area, Martha’s Kitchen has increased the number of meals served on a weekly basis by 100% - doubling the meals served each week.

By the end of 2020, MK will have served over one million prepared meals and have distributed over 2,000,000 pounds of groceries in the Bay Area.

Lee noted, “Thanksgiving week will not be different from a regular service week. Martha’s Kitchen will still serve the community, as we do yearly, serving meals 5 days a week with dinner served Tuesday and Wednesday nights at our San José location.”

In addition, with a donation of turkeys from the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, Martha’s Kitchen will be providing turkey meals to their partners for distribution next week.

Today, Martha’s “little soup kitchen” is not so little anymore. Giving out nutritious hot meals onsite with its mission to “feed the hungry with dignity, no questions asked, no judgment made.” Martha's Kitchen has now grown, due to the pandemic, to an annual production of more than a million meals.

“We need your support in the fight against hunger!” reminds Lee.

You can help support Martha's Kitchen by visiting https://www.marthas-kitchen.org/

To find out how you can access food resources in your neighborhood, please visit bit.ly/SCCFoodMap. #SiliconValleyStrong #SVEats #KeepSJHealthy