About the author: Jim Bramlett is chairman of the Advisory Council for St. Anthony’s Padua Dining Room. Note: Gifts to the Holiday Fund benefit St. Anthony’s Padua Dining Room in North Fair Oaks. To give to the Holiday Fund, see the coupon in the print edition or go to TheAlmanacOnline.com.
By Jim Bramlett
St. Anthony’s Padua Dining Room serves 500 guests daily, Monday through Saturday, 52 weeks a year. All in the community are welcome to enjoy a hot meal, and then take home a bag full of food items including produce.
Thanksgiving and Christmas are the busiest days of the year, serving as many as 1,000 meals on these holidays.
In conjunction with the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, toys are collected during the Christmas season. As many as 2,000 children receive toys during an annual giveaway event held in the parking lot just before Christmas.
Our guests include working and nonworking singles, entire families, senior citizens, homeless, and newcomers to the area.
Many in our community do not have health insurance or ready access to medical care. To provide fundamental health services and assistance, a public health nurse is on-site one day each week.
In addition to serving guests in the dining room, St. Anthony’s provides meals to the Maple Street Shelter and Sequoia Children’s Center in Redwood City, and the Clara-Mateo Shelter in Menlo Park.
The Dining Room first opened its doors in 1974 to serve the low-income elderly a weekend meal supplement in a social and friendly atmosphere. However, the need in the community was much greater and allowed St. Anthony’s to quickly grow into the much larger operation it is now, serving six days a week year-round.
Clothing distribution
The Clothing Distribution Center provides 1,000 patrons a month with shoes, clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, and baby and infant wear.
Adjacent to the Padua Dining Room, the Clothing Center is open Wednesday for women and Thursday for men, and other times on an emergency basis.
Donations of gently used clothing are welcome and always needed. They can be dropped off at the Clothing Center Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
At St. Anthony’s, “we do not believe in miracles. … We count on them.”
For more information about St. Anthony’s, call 365-9664 (Dining Room), 364-2557 (Clothing Center) or go online at www.paduadiningroom.com. The mailing address is: St. Anthony’s Padua Dining Room, 3500 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025.
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