Under the Sun, Kathy King, Executive Director of SOS
On November 23, 2023 the SOS Unity Kitchen at 17400 Sonoma Highway, opened its doors to the food insecure of our Valley. Kathy King, ED of Sonoma Overnight Support talks with the Sun’s Anna Pier about the new venture, SOS, and her life.
Tell us about the new kitchen. Our wonderful new location, this beautiful, welcoming place is the fruit of the extraordinary collaborative work of our many partners. We have 65 wonderful volunteers, ten terrific staff, including four who are bilingual. And the ten members of our Board are amazing.
How do you offer this community food program?
We have a $1.1 million annual budget, and we receive $250K of in-kind donations from local markets and farms, caterers and restaurants. The people of Sonoma are so generous. Civic groups like Rotary. Banks. The churches and congregations – especially Shir Shalom, St. Andrew’s, First Congregational, Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days Saints. Since 2022 food costs have risen 24.5%, nationally, and at the same time the number of people who are food insecure has soared. SOS is working to make sure that no one in Sonoma Valley goes hungry. That includes the families of those who are food deprived, unhoused, working multiple jobs, or homebound.
This is quite a journey for SOS. Yes. In my years with SOS, we have pivoted, changed, and adapted. When I started as ED, SOS had 3 bedrooms at The Haven on First St. W. accommodating six to eight people overnight, and we provided meals for them and other unhoused. The difficulty was in moving clients into longterm housing. Eventually, when the County opened Los Guilicos Village, SOS got ten of the 60 pallet homes for our clients.
Some of your achievements along the way to the Unity Kitchen? The Safe Parking program. It was for the working unhoused who were living in their cars. The City approved the program initially for five cars, and later ten. I got the neighbors on board. We served dinner and breakfast at The Haven, and people could shower there, do their laundry. The City did give SOS $3K/year for ten years, but we paid for everything– food, security, staff to manage showers, and meal preparers.. When the Field of Dreams went in, it brought lots of people to that area around The Haven, and eventually Safe Parking was shut down. But I am proud that it became a model for programs around the County.
Other milestones? The Winter Shelter program. For five years we offered shelter to the unhoused every night 7 pm –7 am from December 1 through March 31, as well as dinner and breakfast at The Haven. We took people by van to and from the Sonoma Alliance Church to sleep. But along came Covid, so we rented single rooms at the Best Western, with the County paying for ten, and SOS for five more. The owner Norm Krug generously took a flat fee. And SOS supplied several staff to oversee, each night, and a meal service. And during and after Covid, we offered take-home meals to the whole community from the Grange for three years, with the numbers growing exponentially.
Connections with other nonprofits? I meet monthly with the Food Roundtable. We work closely with FISH and meet monthly with the Homeless Action (HAS) administrator, and feed their residents. From Pets Lifeline we get cat and dog food; from FISH, gas cards: from the Clinic, medical supplies. Sonoma Immigrant Services helps with legal issues on Fridays. Our hope is that all these services help people not become unhoused.
Talk about your childhood. I grew up in the City. A fifth generation San Franciscan. Family lore is that my great-great grandmother was born on a ship out in the Bay. We lived across from St Vincent de Paul Church and School. We were up to our eyeballs in Catholic.
Your family? It was a household of nine, including three brothers, twin sister, grandfather and uncle. My father’s parents came every Sunday for huge Italian dinners. My fondest memories are of sitting at the kitchen table where everyone talked loud and argued. There was always room for one more. After dinner we would play cards. My father was a banker, and later, until his death at 95, ran a foundation. A good role model for me. We talked a lot about giving back to the community and being of service.
Your dream? I got a Fine Arts degree from Lone Mountain College. My goal was to manage art exhibitions in museums, but that was difficult work to get, so I ended up working for a local supermarket chain and learned about business. Then on to work at nonprofits, community organizing in Oakland. I went back to school for a Certificate in Fund Raising, and my Masters of Non-Profit Management at USF.
Along the way I spent four years living in Montana, training fundraisers in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. I was one of the founders of Western Solidarity, an eight-state coalition which defeated locating the MX missile in the Rocky Mountains. But I wanted to come back to the Bay area (winters were too cold for me) and start a family. I have a 39-year old daughter who was adopted from Honduras. She and her husband have made me the proud grandmother of a nearly two-year-old little boy. My last jobs in the Bay area were as development director for several nonprofits, including Catholic Charities of Oakland and of SF.
Move to Sonoma? In 2012. I planned to retire. But I was recruited by Annette Lamont, a founder of Impact 100. I knew her professionally from SF. She introduced me to Elizabeth Kemp, whose Legacy I would like to continue – feeding the food deprived and the hungry and the homeless. I joined the SOS board and then in 2015, became its director. I still had some gas in the tank.
Other role models or people who inspired you? Martin Luther King. In my office I have that picture of him standing by a photo of Gandhi. I was active in the peace movement, and I practice nonviolent social change. Another inspiration is Rosa Parks – her photo is on my office wall too. I named my daughter for her. And locally, Cindy Vrooman, and Elizabeth Kemp, founder of Brown Baggers and SOS. It was Elizabeth who got me started on the board of SOS.
Last thoughts? The dream is that this Kitchen be stabilized, self-sustaining. Where the hungry can come and get compassionate care. No barriers – we just ask first name and age. No one is ever turned away, sometimes we give 400 meals/day. We are serving 327 individuals in 2024, 145 more than in 2023. We may get up to 80,000 meals this year. We want to meet the increasing need for meals. And we would like to be open seven days a week.
We called it Unity Kitchen because we wanted a place where people could gather and feel at home, and in most households, that’s the kitchen. And “Unity” emphasizes that we serve everyone in the Valley. It echoes Psalm 133, “How good and pleasant it is when all God’s people live together in unity.”
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SOS is amazing