Grassroots organization HelpBerkeley delivers meals during pandemic
Dana Holtzmann/Courtesy
This holiday season, HelpBerkeley aims to help combat food insecurity by delivering meals free of charge. The volunteer-run grassroots organization has been working through the pandemic to provide low-cost and free meals to seniors and at-risk citizens.
HelpBerkeley, a volunteer-run grassroots organization, has been working through the pandemic to provide low-cost and free meals to seniors and at-risk citizens.
To support people who are immunocompromised and individuals over the age of 60 impacted by the pandemic, HelpBerkeley partnered with local restaurants to collect, process and deliver two meals per person for $10 primarily across Berkeley, according to HelpBerkeley CEO Michel Thouati. This holiday season, it aims to help combat food insecurity by delivering meals free of charge.
David Blake, a volunteer delivery driver for HelpBerkeley, making the first of several scheduled stops dropping off food to various COVID-compromised Berkeley residents. Photo: Pete Rosos
At the outset of the pandemic in March, residents in Michel Thouati’s Berkeley Hills neighborhood would meet up while out on walks, exchanging information and asking after others in the area.
“We started noticing some people weren’t there,” Thouati told me in a Zoom call. Assuming their fellow neighbors were sick or self-isolating, Thouati and the others wondered how they were feeding themselves, particularly the vulnerable older folks. Realizing food insecurity for certain populations was potentially a widespread problem, they thought about how they could help. Together, the group came up with HelpBerkeley, a service to get affordable food to people isolating at home, particularly seniors.