Martha's Kitchen

Martha's Kitchen (the organization") is a nonprofit public benefit corporation whose mission is to provide hot meals and support to people in need in santa clara county, California, and surrounding areas. The organization began in the 1960s when founder louise benson gave out peanut butter sandwiches and other essentials to the people in need from her garage in the willow glen area of san jose, California. When neighbors complained about the lines of poor people in the neighborhood, she moved her ministry to her home parish in 1981. A few years later, the organization was absorbed by catholic charities until 2001 when it was incorporated as an independent nonprofit organization.the organization leases Kitchen and dining room facilities at 311 willow street, san jose, California from the catholic diocese of san jose. It also leases Kitchen and dining room facilities at 112 east beach street, watsonville, California from the presbytery of san jose. During the year ended june 30, 2023, 1,273,388 meals and 1,929,335 pounds of groceries were either served at the facility or distributed to other food service facilities.the organization provides meals and support to people in need in the following counties for year ended june 30, 2023:-santa clara-santa cruz-san benito-merced-san mateo-monterey -fresnothe organization measures success by counting the number of meals prepared and the number of serving sites. In the past few years, the organization has more than tripled the number of meals it prepares from less than 250,000 a year to over 1,273,388 this past year; and has then doubled the number of partners serving sites from 30 to 65 as of year end 30, 2023. When the covid 19 pandemic hit, the organization nearly doubled the number of hot meals being served. The amount of groceries distributed has also increased dramatically since the onset of covid 19 and the organization distributed 1,929,335 of groceries in the past year. The organization is a community driven organization. For a small organization, this soup Kitchen received 24,248 hours of volunteer time during the year ended june 30, 2023 to help with its mission of feeding the hungry. The local food bank and grocery stores as well as large venues donate food, property and equipment, rent and supplies which totaled $6,575,466 in the year ended june 30, 2023.