The rosary beads dangling from the rear-view mirror sway ever so gently as Nabor Yepez pulls his car into the North San Jose parking lot early on this particular Wednesday, as he has virtually every week since he was furloughed from his job in March.
“I don’t have money right now, but I can give rides, bring food,” he said through his mask. “I’m not afraid.”
For years, Yepez has worked in the facilities field for the hospitality/tourism industry, most recently setting up events at the city’s convention center. As the pandemic stretches on, he expects to keep depending on Hunger at Home to get through the tough times.
“We need the help. They give us the help,” he said.
That need has increased exponentially this year for Hunger at Home, a San Jose-based nonprofit originally conceived as a way to transfer to Silicon Valley’s needy the excess food from convention halls, hotels, stadiums and tech companies that otherwise would go to waste. When those venues had to turn out the lights, their employees went from being part of the Hunger at Home production network to its growing base of recipients.
