Feed Alameda Campaign Helps Local Restaurants, Residents

ALAMEDA, CA — The City of Alameda is launching Feed Alameda, a new program to support local restaurants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, by purchasing meals that are then donated to needy people here in town.

Here's how it will work — the program will pay local restaurants to provide 90 meals per week to Alameda’s homeless individuals, women and children at Midway Shelter, residents of the FEMA trailers, and those who use the safe overnight parking areas at Alameda Point.

Each participating restaurant will be paid $25 per meal for 90 meals. Meals must be hot, nutritious, low in sodium, and must include a fruit and vegetable, and a main course. There a link below for restaurants to apply for the program.

“COVID-19 has been especially hard on our most vulnerable community members and our restaurants, so we modeled this program on the National Restaurant Association’s 'Let Restaurants Do the Cooking' campaign that I learned about on a conference call with other U.S. Mayors,” said Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft. “Please be as generous as you can! Your donations will go directly to purchase hot meals that are delivered to people in need.”

The City is paying for the first ten weeks of meals, which begin Jan. 20, and a GoFundMe campaign has been launched that will allow the community to extend the program. The GoFundMe page has already raised more than $20,000. The business community has gotten behind the plan.

Ernst Development Partners donated $2,500; Carol and Bob Chamberlin donated $1,000 as did Daria Mehra; there have been six donations of $500 each from the Cook-Wornum Family, Andy and Chantal Currid, Kevin Kennedy, Becca Perata, Hawthorn Suites By Wyndham, and an anonymous donor.

In all, there have been 95 donations of $100 or more as of 6 p.m. on Thursday. (Go Fund Me is a Patch promotional partner.)

Sponsors to date include the Alameda Rotary, Alameda Police Officers Association, Alameda Chamber of Commerce, and Alameda Firefighter’s Local 689. The Alameda Point Collaborative is the fiscal sponsor of Feed Alameda.

If you find this program inspiring, volunteers are needed to help with meal distribution. Sign up here to volunteer.

“On behalf of the volunteers and site coordinators for Dine and Connect, I express our gratitude for this opportunity to collaborate with the City and local restaurants in providing nourishing meals to our unhoused brothers and sisters here in Alameda,” says Sister Patricia Nagle, lead coordinator of the Dine and Connect Program.

No chain restaurants will be included. Local restaurant owners who would like to participate in the program can apply here. The restaurants and will be selected in a randomized lottery.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America to help raise awareness on behalf of the millions of Americans facing hunger. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimates that in 2021, more than 50 million Americans will not have enough nutritious food to eat due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.