“ I am so grateful to have such well thought out healthy meals, I couldn’t heal properly without them.”
– Linda Guajardo
Mission Moment: Mary’s Table Needs Your Help!
Since 1988, COTS has served our community as one of the largest homelessness services providers in Sonoma County. Did you know that COTS also serves anyone in the community experiencing food insecurity? Every day, COTS prepares hot lunches and dinners for anyone in Sonoma County who needs a warm meal. This year, COTS will prepare and serve more than 90,000 hot meals to our neighbors throughout Sonoma County, ensuring everyone has access to hot, nutritious food every day of the year.
During the height of the pandemic, our kitchen operations had to quickly pivot to keep our community members safe. While preparing and serving individually packaged meals increased the workload on our staff, COTS was happy to make this shift to provide a safer dining experience for any individual or family needing meals. This shift also helped COTS provide a safe place for our clients, including families, those in transitional shelter, and those in our emergency shelter right here at the Mary Isaak Center.
Between 2020 and 2023, the COTS kitchen has increased the number of hot meals served to our community by more than 30%. This increase in need demonstrates the effects that the pandemic and historic inflation had on our neighbors in Sonoma County. This incredible increase in need has also strained COTS’ capacity to serve everyone in need, and we could use your help!
Mary’s Table is one of the most successful—and one of the busiest! —programs here at COTS. Without community support, COTS could never serve over 90,000 meals annually. If you are interested in helping COTS continue eliminating food insecurity in Petaluma and throughout Sonoma County, you can donate at our website at www.cots.org. If you are interested in volunteering at Mary’s Table, please reach out to Erin Krueger at [email protected]. COTS appreciates all support from our community, and thanks you for your interest in helping Mary’s Table!
Until next time,
Chris Cabral
Sincerely,
Chris Cabral, CEO
“I love the fact that the kitchen always serves fruit, vegetables, and salad along with the main meal as a complete meal is crucial for my healing process.”
– Ahmed Shaheed
“ The kitchen provides great meals, and atmosphere, that creates the opportunity for a whole healing experience.”
– Florence Cocoran
” Chef, and her team, play a crucial part in the healing needs of my clients, the meals that are created play a very important part in recovery process of our clients. I would [be] remiss not to mention that the meals created are tasty too.”
-Pat Higgins