San Jose to Serve 30,000 Meals a Week to Seniors and People with Medical Vulnerabilities

Silicon Valley’s largest city has launched its version of Great Plates Delivered—a statewide program that provides meals from local businesses to seniors and immunocompromised people during the coronavirus pandemic.

The city of San Jose, which has taken the lead on food distribution in Santa Clara County, is partnering with World Central Kitchen to implement the program and add to the 2 million meals a week already being provided through the Silicon Valley Strong initiative.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the Great Plates Delivered program on April 24. The idea if to provided three meals a day to at-risk adults while simultaneously stimulating local businesses that are struggling to survive.

“Through this partnership with World Central Kitchen, we will deliver more high-quality meals to more of our vulnerable seniors, while providing a much-needed shot in the arm to our local restaurants,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said in a news release. “Thanks to Governor Newsom and his team for engaging with us to launch Great Plates Delivered in San Jose, and thanks to all of our resourceful, hard-working city staff and many partners who have scaled countywide food delivery to exceed 2.6 million meals weekly.”

In Santa Clara County, World Central Kitchen will coordinate the effort through its Restaurants for People program, serving approximately 30,000 meals a week from local eateries. The nonprofit also plans to help the city distribute the meals.

“Our older adults in Santa Clara County must be treated with dignity and great care so they can get through the pandemic by eating well and maintaining their physical and mental health,” Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Cindy Chavez said. “This program is a testament to local and state government working hand in hand for the greater good of our community.”

Last week, Great Plates Delivered conducted a trial run of the program to ensure it was able to scale and meet both the cultural and dietary needs of the people it serves. So far Bloom Catering, Adelitas, Vegetarian House, Pedro’s and Malaya—Malaysian and Pan Asian Kitchen have been enrolled in the program.

“This new initiative reflects World Central Kitchen’s mission to use food as a solution to empower communities and strengthen economies,” World Central Kitchen CEO Nate Mook said. “We partner directly with small family businesses, female-and minority-owned restaurants to deliver these meals.”

World Central Kitchen has also recruited the help of the nonprofit Sourcewise, which provides services for seniors and people with disabilities.

Restaurants interested in Great Plates Delivered can sign up here. Residents in need of meals can call 2-1-1 or visit SiliconValleyStrong.org/GPD or mysourcewise.com.

4 Comments

  1. > San Jose to Serve 30,000 Meals a Week to Seniors and People with Medical Vulnerabilities

    WHAT?!!!!

    Virtue signalling on steroids!

    Stop the showboating!

    The same end could be achieved simply by opening restaurants and giving vouchers to “Seniors and People with Medical Vulnerabilities”.

    Does a “medical vulnerability” include an uncertain supply of medical marijuana?

  2. There is a program that has been doing that for years – it is already set up and running. the program presented here smacks of some kind of “make good” show boating- – – how is this better than this https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/

    another political grandstanding showboating way to piss away tax payer funds for something that is not needed.

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