Peninsula Wine Entrepreneur, Nun Pair Up To Provide Meals For Thousands
HALF MOON BAY (KPIX 5) -- An unlikely pair is serving up a weekly dinner that's become a safe haven on the San Mateo County coast for those who need it most.
From the dinner menu to the decorations, Sister Jeanette Braun and her all-volunteer team address every detail to make sure every guest feels loved.
"By that warm welcome of each guest, that gesture of hospitality, we affirm the dignity of each person," Braun said.
The weekly suppers started in 2012 when winemaker Clyde Beffa Jr. wanted to create a sense of community among members of his church.
Beffa, founder and co-owner of K&L Wine Merchants, also wanted to do something to honor his late mother. While talking with his priest, Father Charlie Fermeglia of Our Lady of the Pillar parish, they came up with an idea.
"We'll do a wine tasting, and we'll try to bring all these people together. It might be a fun event," Beffa recalled.
That event, which raised $15,000, turned into an annual fundraiser that would sustain a brand-new nonprofit. The men called it the Table of Plenty. Sister Braun, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, became its founding director.
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She organizes the free Thursday night suppers at the Senior Coastsiders for those without homes, senior citizens, farmworkers and struggling families.
"They have this conversation together, and the companionship, and then we create community," Braun explained.
The suppers serve up to 150 guests each week. Like those who came on St Patrick's Day, they feel a sense of belonging.
Beffa, who brings his whole family, including grandchildren, to volunteer, notices the change. In the beginning, people sat in their own groups, but now, they're mingling, sitting together with a diversity of people.
"At first, it was maybe the homeless were in one spot, and the farm families were in another, but they're mixing more," Beffa said.
They form friendships. And sometimes, even more. Octogenarians Jill Ledbetter and James Gorman fell in love at the Table of Plenty.
And now, they're married.
"You don't expect something like to happen at our age but I'm so grateful it has because it's a whole new lease on life," Ledbetter said.
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Half of the nearly 100 volunteers are high school students whom Braun trains in how to greet and treat each guest with warmth. High school senior Rocio Montelongo learns confidence and the value of kindness.
"I see like how much joy it brings to everybody. It's something I'd like to keep doing," Montelongo said.
Longtime volunteer Debbe Kennedy says what Beffa and Braun have cooked up feels like family.
"When you come here, you learned what it meant to love one another," Kennedy said.
"I would describe the Table of Plenty as a labor of love," said Braun.
So for setting a Table of Plenty that builds community on the San Mateo County coast, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Sister Jeanette Braun and Clyde Beffa, Jr.
Note: Father Charlie, who helped start the Table of Plenty, is now pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church in Concord
