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.