All Saints Episcopal Church — Attraction in Palo Alto

It's a nice place to visit. The only thing that's disappointing is that they no longer serve a hot meal for lunch by the company, Breaking Bread, on Thursday and Friday from 11:30am to 12:30pm, as they have done in the past for many, many years to serve the needy whom were either homeless, elderly and/or low income.🤦🏾‍♀️😖

There use to be a long line waiting for food. Unfortunately they had a HUGE decline in attendance after the program that runs the meal department hired a young woman who had many ideas including but not limited to, changing how the food was prepared, removing the juices that people would drink with their meals (there use to be a choice between juice, milk, and water), and she replaced it with only milk or water.

Her excuse was that the juices contained arsenic. When the people discussed this with her at length that not ALL juices contained arsenic and the FDA government approved this to be consumed, she then stated that it contains too much sugar!

When the people who eat there stated that the milk was upsetting to their stomach's because they're lactose intolerant, she said that there's plenty of water to drink. The homeless and elderly people came to me for help (because I would sit and eat with them and listen to their stories no matter how many times they would tell their stories of the days of old; I would listen as if it were my very first time!); and they didn't know what to do about the meal situation. So, I said that they needed to speak up; that their voices need to be heard.

Unfortunately it fell upon deaf ears because she just stared at them making them and their needs feel as though they were substandard, and she knew what was BEST for them.

Sometimes the homeless (as well as the elderly) would come in there looking for the juice to bring their sugar up because they hadn't had a bite to eat yet. Even this, didn't sway her to bring the juices back. Nor did the fact that the milk would upset their stomach with NO place to run to with loose bowel in order to use the bathroom once the lunch was over. Then she took away the salt and pepper packets, saying that they shouldn't be consuming sodium. A week or two later, she brought back the pepper packets.

Once you TAKE AWAY the juices to drink, the sodium out of the meals (making it very bland), and the salt packets.... WHAT DO YOU EXPECT!!? Of course you'd have a decline in attendance. Even Jesus carried a pouch with salt in it; saying that it made the meals MORE palatable. A meal is SUPPOSE to be not only healthy, but satisfying!

It was more like a "power trip" (if you ask me), with her, than anything else. She was trying to conform everyone to the way that she ate. Yet, even she admitted that she drinks juices in her home! So... What gives?

If you implement something and it isn't working, then you HAVE TO reevaluate your position for the benefit of, not only the people that you're trying to help nourish, but to also help keep that program up and running smoothly.

Well... She didn't do that. The people pleaded, and she refused to listen. Not only did she NOT bring everything back to the way it was when she was first hired to take over that contract when it was thriving, she completely ran it into the ground; where at least 60% of the people stopped coming to eat on Thursday's and an 80% decline on Friday's!!

Talk about smug! Rather than to bend and admit that she was wrong and put it BACK the way it was, she let it completely be shut down as of August/8th/2019. At 12:30pm the last meal was served with everyone scrambling for a substitute place to eat.

The extremely sad and heartbreaking thing about all of this, is that not only did this place serve as a meal for those whom are utterly less fortunate than the rest, it was also a place that they could come and sit when the heat was overwhelming in the summer, or the rain was relentlessly pounding the pavement in the winter and fall. She took away a place that use to serve a great meal to the homeless, elderly, and low...

The people here are very nice, and there is a food closet Monday through Friday from 10 to 2:30. On Thursday, they are also open until 6, and they have hours from 9 to 1 on Saturday. The Sunday service...

Loved by the community, Palo Alto's favorite space ship-like church, and home to the Food Closet food donation center, the PA DST weekly meeting, and FREE lunch Thurs and Friday (opens by...