Adobe Shares Groceries and Holiday Cheer at a Table Where Everyone Is Welcome

A new Adobe Community Investment Partner in 2003, Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen in downtown San Jose has been providing free, nutritious hot meals and support services to people in need, especially families and senior citizens, since 1980. The organization served 11 guests at its initial meal. Today it serves five meals each week at two locations-St. Patrick and St. Maria Goretti churches-to 150 to 200 guests per meal, totaling more than 50,000 meals annually.

Adobe's US$25,000 grant to Loaves & Fishes in 2003 funded the hiring of an assistant cook and the ongoing purchase of cookware, paper goods, utensils, and other kitchen supplies. In October, Adobe hosted and sponsored the recognition reception for donors participating in the organization's summer Major Gifts Campaign.

Adobe employees have gotten involved in Loaves & Fishes, too, primarily through two holiday events coordinated by Adobe's San Jose Philanthropy Council. In mid-December, Adobe volunteers helped sort and distribute food donations at the Loaves & Fishes Family Harvest event. This monthly program invites some 150 families to St. Maria Goretti for a free bag of food staples, as well as the opportunity to fill a shopping cart with additional groceries. Loaves & Fishes receives most of its food-more than 200,000 pounds per year-through the Second Harvest Food Bank, another Adobe Community Investment Partner.

Adobe employees also participated in the 2003 Loaves & Fishes holiday toy and clothing drive, selecting gift tags from a Giving Tree at Adobe headquarters and purchasing the items requested by the agency. On December 23, Loaves & Fishes transformed a room at St. Patrick's into a Christmas store, where parents shopped for their children from the hundreds of new donated items, more than 300 of which came from Adobe employees, along with US$600 in grocery certificates. Six Adobe volunteers helped wrap gifts at the event, and Adobe funded the purchase of wrapping materials.
Learn more about Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen

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