‘No Questions Asked’ nourishment

For 50 years, the Padua Dining Room has fed the body and lifted the spirit of anyone that comes through its front doors

By Christina Gray

Dominic Pereira was making his living as a restaurant cook when he realized he had bigger fish to fry. He envisioned a place where elderly folks on limited incomes, the working poor, newcomers, the unemployed, the homeless, and really anyone down on their luck or struggling to feed themselves or their families could come for a free, home-cooked meal served with a warm welcome.

On Sept. 8, 1974, Pereira’s dream was realized with the opening of the Padua Dining Room. For 50 years, the free dining room located at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Menlo Park has nourished the body and lifted the spirits of anyone who comes through its front doors. Today it serves 300-400 hot meals a day, Monday through Saturday, from 11 am to 1 pm.

Clients can find the Padua Dining Room in a large gymnasium–size building in the back of the church at 3500 Middlefield Road.

Menlo Park has a cost of living 111% above the national average, according to the Economic Research Institute, erieri.com, using data on housing, food, transportation and health care costs.

“I’m glad to know that this is a place that I can always come to and I’m welcomed,” a regular named Kirk said in a recent video tribute of the dining room’s 50th anniversary.

The tables have turned for Mario Garcia, once a client of the Padua Dining Room, now a volunteer. It was difficult to make enough money to feed his family at first when they came to this country. “St. Anthony’s was open to us and welcomed us and fed our family for a few years,” he said.

The impact of the Padua Dining Room over the span of five decades is “incalculable,” according to Father Tom Martin, administrator of St. Anthony of Padua Parish.

“One of the things that is so incredible about the mission is that those who come for support are always going to find it,” he said. A warm meal, offered with dignity and respect, “really helps to heal some of the challenges facing individuals and family life.”

A visionary collaboration

Pereira didn’t open the Padua Dining alone. It was the fruit of a visionary collaboration between himself and Father John Coleman, then-pastor at St. Anthony Parish (who died at age 98 earlier this year). Father Coleman took the idea to the San Mateo Central Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which provided initial funding.

Over the years, the Padua Dining Room has been able to expand its core services beyond hot meals. It also offers grocery basics, clothing and bedding, and on-site health services. On alternating days, new and used clothing items are available for men, women and children, including infants, as are sleeping bags and blankets. A volunteer nurse is on-site from 10:30 am to 1 pm to offer basic health care advice and services such as blood pressure testing, vaccinations and referrals.

The comprehensive services and large, well-oiled volunteer work force are reasons the Padua Dining Room has been designated a disaster relief center for San Mateo County.

“We charge no fees, ask no questions, turn no one away,” said Maximillian Torres, operations manager. He’s been at the dining room since 1982 when Pereira convinced him to leave Mexico for the job. He is grateful, he said, for so much, but mostly to be able to serve “the least in our community, the least favored.”

The grace of volunteers and donors

While the Padua Dining Hall is a part of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, it is financially independent from it, said Rickey Ono, a St. Anthony parishioner and chairman of its advisory council.

Today, Padua Dining Room operations are fueled by individual donations, foundation grants, memorial gifts and bequests, corporate gifts, food donations and hundreds of committed volunteers.

Food donations come through Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, which receives funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Safeway, Costco, Bimbo’s Bakery, Chavez Supermarket, local farmers markets and other businesses.

“We’ve got a tremendous food source at the produce terminal in South San Francisco,” said Larry Purcell, a founding volunteer. Every Tuesday and Friday he makes the drive in a St. Anthony truck and loads it with 10,000 pounds of donated produce.

“I do that because I think that’s who we are as human beings,” he said. “We’re supposed to become one and serve each other.”

A popular Christmas event for the past 30 years has been the Padua Dining Room/Menlo Park Fire Department toy drive and giveaway for underprivileged youth.

Students at Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, Woodside Priory and Menlo School have made turkey drives benefiting the Padua Dining Room an annual tradition. An average of 400 turkeys are donated each year.

A home away from home

Many of the Padua Dining Room’s several hundred volunteers have been working there for decades. They said the dining room is as important to them as it is to the clients they serve.

“It’s a wonderful place to be,” said a volunteer named Cole. “I’ve seen some come through here with their children and now some of them are coming with their grandchildren….This is their home.”

Troy, a local firefighter, was 10 when he first came to the Padua Dining Room. His mother brought him and his brothers and sister there for meals after his father left the family home. “Now I get a chance to come down here and help myself.”

Visit paduadiningroom.com to donate of volunteer at the Padua Dining Room.

Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco.