SEASIDE — When COVID-19 came to Monterey County, Salinas resident Tanya Kosta thought about the impact a shelter-in-place order intended to save lives would have on livelihoods. She thought of the thousands of workers who would lose their jobs as the hospitality industry shut down, as well as food-service workers, retail employees, and all the local families already facing food insecurity, who risked losing support as nonprofit organizations lost funding.
Kosta sat down at her dining room table and began mapping out a plan to make good on a promise she made when her own life got stuck between a rock and a hard place. If and when her life became healthy and whole enough to turn her attention to the wellbeing of others, she would devote herself to making a difference.
Realizing that life is precious and unpredictable, she decided she didn’t need to wait for hers to become perfect before getting down to making a difference in someone else’s life.
On April 1, the single mother of two established ALL IN Monterey, so named because she is all in and imagined others might be, as well. Neither a business nor a nonprofit organization, this is a community group of local volunteers working to satisfy needs. What began with a handful of folks Kosta met while volunteering for Operation Holiday Cheer last Christmas, has become a key community resource driven by 2,000 volunteers working with local businesses to give what they can.
The need is here
The effect of the pandemic on the economy has left people hungry in this community.
Last month, the Food Bank for Monterey County fed 250,000 county residents in need. In the absence of their usual volunteer force, they did so with a staff of 26, plus 20 members of the National Guard.
For more than four months, ALL IN Monterey has worked with the Food Bank to distribute food and other essential groceries to 2,000 families per week. Most of it takes place through daily food drives at Seaside High School.
“But we’ll help anybody who needs it,” Kosta said.
Although she now lives in Salinas, Kosta, 49, retired early from her career with MPUSD, the district in which she raised her daughter, a Monterey High graduate, who is doing social-distance learning through Sacramento State, and her son, a sophomore at Palma School, also studying from home.
“As we started gathering donations,” said Kosta, “I suddenly had a semi-truck full of food coming, so I called MPUSD Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh, asking for support to get the food disbursed among families the next day. He said, ‘Tell me what you need.’ Then I talked to Seaside High Principal Aaron Sanders, who gave us classrooms for a food locker, a market, and an essentials boutique.”
Getting it done
Diffenbaugh and Sanders were “all in.” They rolled up their sleeves and began packing grocery bags and boxes and delivering food. What began with one day of donations, has developed into a weekly schedule to reach a diverse demographic in need.
On Mondays, ALL IN hosts a drive-through food market at Seaside High, sponsored by The Food Bank for Monterey County. When the National Guard support ends at the Food Bank, the “ALL IN Crew” will keep the food drive going.
“Tanya Kosta is my favorite person on the planet,” said Melissa Kendrick, executive director of the Food Bank. “I can think of few people in my life who have made such an impression on their community. She saw a need and filled it. So nimble and flexible, she has become a tremendous partner, through her ability to distribute unbelievable amounts of food.”
Through Kosta’s ingenuity and people power, says Kendrick, ALL IN Monterey is a trusted partner with which the Food Bank can scale up to keep providing food in an unprecedented time of need.
On Tuesdays, ALL IN provides food for 200 MPUSD families, who come to Seaside High to collect their grocery bags. Diffenbaugh and MPUSD’s Marci McFadden organized a volunteer corps among administrators and teachers, who deliver groceries to families without transportation. Kosta anticipates the need increasing to 300 families over the next two weeks, as remote schooling gets underway.
On Wednesdays, some 700 hospitality workers who are out of work or whose hours have been reduced, are invited to drive through the Seaside High circle to receive ‘gifts from the community,’ a box of fresh produce, eggs, milk, cereal, bread—a trunk full of groceries.
“It has been painful to see the effects of the pandemic on such a big part of Monterey County,” Kosta said.
In addition, local chefs have been providing fresh pies, cakes and cookies, and Grocery Outlet contributes coffee and creamer. Based in Marina, “The Ginger People,” reportedly the largest supplier of ginger in the world, brought in ginger chews candy to add to the hospitality gifts.
Thursday is the day for ALL IN to regroup, gather resources, develop plans and programs to extend their reach.
On Fridays, ALL IN hosts an “organization pickup.” Community Partnership for Youth staff picks up 60 cartons of milk and 60 bags of groceries for families in need. Similarly, Gathering for Women, Dorothy’s Kitchen, East Salinas Family Center, Salinas First United Methodist Church, Shoreline Church in Monterey, Community Homeless Solutions, and They are One collect food for their communities in need.
On Saturdays, ALL IN partners with “Pass the Word,” a volunteer-driven ministry that serves the hungry and homeless on the Monterey Peninsula.
“We join several organizations who show up, rain or shine, at El Estero Park in Monterey,” said Kosta, “to give out food, blankets and whatever else the homeless population needs. Goods are generated by a wish list we post for the week via Facebook. Then we do a porch pick up, or people drop off donations at Seaside High.”
On Sundays, ALL IN Monterey hosts their “Sunday Night Supper Club.” The Paper Wing Theater & Supper Club in Monterey, which has been preparing supper boxes for sale during the pandemic, invites the community to order supper boxes to be donated to families in need.
“Depending on how many meals have been donated,” says Kosta, “we gather at Roberts Lake Park in Seaside, and deliver supper to families living in campers and cars. Each box, for $49, feeds a family of four to six.”
Come Monday morning, the schedule begins, again. The requests go out, the donations come in, and volunteers are “all in” to get food and other essentials to those in need.
Word of mouth
“It’s hard to imagine how this works without seeing it in action,” Kosta said. “The reason it works is because so many people are hearing about us, via Facebook or word of mouth, and are coming to volunteer, to donate, to send food from their pantries, their restaurants, their ag fields, and their farms. This is the ultimate grassroots organization.”
Allegro Pizzeria at The Barnyard Shopping Village in Carmel, recently learned of ALL IN Monterey and sent over fresh-made pasta. Owner Gino Abraham, who established the restaurant in 1988, along with his reputation for generosity throughout the community, was trying to figure out how he could help the hungry when he heard about ALL IN.
“ALL IN is a godsend because I’ve been trying to figure out how to get pizza to people in assisted living facilities,” Abraham said. “I heard about seniors who hadn’t had pizza in so long, and we needed to change that. We’re going to give food to ALL IN every day they need it. The food part is easy. Distributing it is the hard part, and they’re going to take care of that. Instead of advertising, we’d rather reach out to the community.”
Abraham is one among many restaurateurs who, while facing their own COVID-based challenges, are reaching out to communities in need through ALL IN Monterey.
“We would not be able to do this without Karen Blackwell of English AlesBrewery in Marina,” Kosta said. “We started receiving all these perishable goods — eggs, produce, butter, cheese, and 300 gallons of milk per week from Vesta Foodservice — and we had nowhere to store it. Karen, whose brewery isn’t open right now, literally handed me the key to her cooler storage.”
Pasta, plus the pot to prepare it
Kosta and her “ALL IN Crew” understand that sometimes it takes more than food to feed people. In addition to their food drives, they’ve created the ALL IN Boutique, a general store, where people can pick up household items, depending on what they need and what has been donated. For free.
“When Goodwill, The Salvation Army and other similar places had to close, there was no place for people to get inexpensive pots or pans, bed sheets or clothing. We started accepting donations,” said Kosta, “which we arrange neatly, so the community can come in and collect what they need.”
Turns out many people while cooped up during the quarantine, have been cleaning out their closets and looking for opportunities to donate their abundance. Folks in need have collected clothing, diapers, wipes, formula, microwaves, cleaning supplies, and even crockpots. After Kosta put out a call for crockpots to help families prepare warm meals, within 24 hours, she’d received 15 crockpots, including three from friends who had ordered them for next-day delivery from Amazon.
“That’s the kind of people we have surrounding us,” she said. “Our donors and volunteers are creating a caring environment, where people are getting the essentials they need in a compassionate, dignified way. Whether people donate a dollar or a thousand dollars, we say thank you, all the same. Everything counts, and the kindness that comes with every donation is a blessing.”
At the Food Bank for Monterey County, Melissa Kendrick believes being nimble enables her crew to do more with less, so they can be good custodians of the resources they have. She sees this in Kosta, which is why she is grateful to partner with ALL IN Monterey.
“Our partnership with Tanya and her crew has been phenomenal,” said Kendrick, “a true silver lining. We have a real opportunity to reimagine what we’re doing, and look at feeding our community in new ways, during this unprecedented time, and going forward.”
ALL IN Monterey
What: A community volunteer group that gathers and distributes resources to the needy.
How: Requests are collected via the group’s Facebook page (All IN Monterey) or email (all.in.monterey@gmail.com)
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