Who We Are
Respecting Our Elders is an all-volunteer 501(c)3 charity organized primarily to collect and distribute free food to needy seniors and others in Marin County.
How we got started
The group was formed in July, 2005 by a couple of concerned residents of the subsidized housing development at the Villas at Hamilton in Novato, Ruth Schwartz and Curt Kinkead, who became aware that some of their neighbors were not getting enough to eat and decided to do something about it.
Initial Goals
In starting the food program, their goal was to reduce the amount of money a participating resident in the Villas at Hamilton would have to pay per month for food to less than $100 (with the neediest paying almost nothing).
The goal was achieved over four years ago, with help from Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Safeway and Peet’s Coffee and Tea.
Serving the Underserved
We are also taking care of a population that is severely underserved – the lower-income elders of our community. These are, in most cases, people who would not qualify for food stamps. Yet in this economy, their income does not cover all of their needs. Many of them are barely making it on their Social Security checks, and we have a number of stories about how they are able to make the rent check more easily each month, or do something special out with friends – just because they are getting some free food through us. What we are finding is that people are moving from living in scarcity and survival to abundance and prosperity, where prosperity is where you are so filled up that you have enough to pass on and take care of others.
Results
The program produces results like no other aid program before it. It targets individual needs and assures that the neediest get the most.
Above all, Respecting Our Elders is building community by forcing complexes to come together as communities to deal with the incoming food, and it is these unfettered communities that do the distribution, making a profound difference in the lives of entire complexes of the most underserved needy in our society today.
Every Week Distribution
On a weekly basis, we are distributing food to 20 different subsidized housing complexes, improving the lives of over 1500 seniors in Marin. In addition, each week we have six open Food Days (three in Bolinas and one each in Novato, San Rafael and Marin City).