Volunteer Profile: Marge Popp

Marge Popp is our longest-serving volunteer at Mary’s Table. But she’s been feeding her community even longer than COTS has been around.

When she was a little girl growing up during the Depression, she and her mother used to feed homeless people who came to their door. “We called them ‘hobos’ back then,” she says. “They used to pencil in little marks on your doorsill so that other hobos would know which houses were good.”

“Ours had some kind of sign on it, and it must have been good. We had a lot of them coming by.” The family didn’t have much to share, but Marge’s mother always managed to give something.

“Come to think of it, my mother is probably the person who made me think about volunteering,” Marge says.

During World War Two, Marge and her friends volunteered with the USO at a hall on Liberty Street. They would dance, play cards, share snacks and chat with servicemen from around the country. “They kept the juke box pretty up to date. We had a lot of fun—but no hanky panky,” Marge says. Many of her girlfriends met their husbands through their time with the USO, and that brought people from around the country to live in Petaluma. But Marge married Don Popp. He served in World War Two, but he was a Petaluma boy, someone she’d known her entire life. They married after the war and built a house in 1950.

After high school, Marge worked at Western Dairy (now the Burdell Building). “It was a different time back then,” Marge says. “If you didn’t have money, you got a job right after high school. And you were happy to have it. There were the rich people. We called them ‘The 400.’ And then there was everybody else.” At the dairy, Marge was “an office girl.”

“They didn’t call us secretaries or anything like that. We were all just office girls.” To start, she worked 48 hours a week and brought home the magnificent sum of $17 every Friday. She retired in 1982 when the business sold.

Immediately, she began to volunteer at Mary’s Table’s precursor, The Petaluma Kitchen on Payran Street. That opened in 1982 to serve the households who’d been displaced because of flooding. After the floods, the St. Vincent de Paul Society kept the kitchen open. They served lunch to anyone who needed a meal, and Marge stuck with them. In 2002, COTS took over operations and Marge stuck with us. All told, she’s spent more than 30,000 hours in service to feeding the poor through the kitchen.

Before the virus hit, Marge was working three shifts a week.  She and her teams of volunteers are close. “They’re all interesting and fun-loving and willing to work,” Marge says. “We have a good time.” After months and years together, they’re close. They’ve shared joys and sorrows, including the 2016 death of Marge’s beloved Don. Thye’ve admired photos of one another’s children and grandchildren and helped one another through hard times. When someone on the team is recovering from illness or injury, Marge is  there with meals and phone calls.

Marge’s kitchen career is now longer than her professional one. Diners love her booming greetings, her encouragement and her smiles. Petaluma named her volunteer of the year in 2014. To us, she’s Volunteer of the Century.

Diana Morales, who coordinates COTS volunteer program, says our Marge is solidly on the side of our clients. “Every morning that she comes in, she asks, ‘How many clients got housing?’ That is what she’s interested in.”

Marge has lots of stories about volunteering, but we only have room for one.

Shortly before the shelter in place order, Marge and her fellow volunteers were at a restaurant together.   One of the busboys leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “He said, ‘You were so nice to me when I was at COTS. Thank you.’ I hardly remembered him, but that was so nice to see him doing well for himself,” Marge says.

Her advice: “Stop and think of what you’ve got. Then  think about people who don’t have what you do. Ask yourself what you’d be doing if you were in that position. You’d be asking for help. So let’s give it.”

Our advice: volunteer so that you can hear some of Marge’s stories!

Thank you, Marge!

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