While volunteers from Cupertino Rotary help feed homeless people in the community year-round, the club has big plans for Thanksgiving Day.

The morning of Nov. 25, Rotarians are set to pick up 120 meals from the Safeway at Homestead Road and De Anza Boulevard and deliver them to people in need, selected by local community service agencies and schools.

Safeway has donated meal boxes to the effort for the past 15 years. The meals include turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and Hawaiian rolls for about eight people.

“We look forward every year to meeting these families, even though this year it will be from a safe social distance,” Rotary project chair George Denise said in a statement. “We literally can feel their joy when we bring the meals,” he said.

Henry Buffalow, Cupertino Rotary’s community services chair, has delivered Thanksgiving meals with his daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons for many years.

“This way,” he said, “the younger people see that not everyone is as fortunate as they are.”

Serving Daily Bread

In addition to the annual Thanksgiving meal distribution, Rotarians volunteer on a weekly basis at Our Daily Bread in Sunnyvale. The nonprofit had to change its distribution method from sit-down to takeout when the pandemic hit, so volunteers have shifted from serving to packaging hot meals.

But Donna Beres, the nonprofit’s board secretary, said Our Daily Bread’s mission remains the same. “Our goal for all these years is to provide nutritious meals to hundreds of hungry men, women and children.”

Besides helping in the kitchen, Cupertino Rotarians have helped secure funding for Our Daily Bread. Rotarian Susan Latshaw, a volunteer since 2008, wrote a grant application in 2019 that netted $30,000 from the Rotary Golf Classic for the Sunnyvale nonprofit. The grant was used to buy a new outside refrigerator and freezer, as well as a dishwasher and warmer oven to make kitchen operation safer and more cost-effective.

Our Daily Bread provides meal service at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 231 Sunset Ave., Sunnyvale.