{"id":503797,"date":"2026-10-22T05:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/503797\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T05:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:14:11","slug":"whole-foods-market-teams-up-with-nonprofit-for-nutritious-outreach-los-gatan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/503797\/","title":{"rendered":"Whole Foods Market teams up with nonprofit for nutritious outreach | Los Gatan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kendall<\/a>THE BOSS\u00a0– Kendall Witthans, Los Gatos Whole Foods Market\u2019s Store Team Leader,\u00a0 stands in front of the prepared foods section. Witthans said prepared foods have helped the store exceed early sales expectations. (Tyler Brunner \/ Los Gatan)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re basically feeding over 1,000 people a week,\u201d Darrell Bosacki of West Valley Community Services told the Los Gatan.<\/p>\n

Bosacki, a coordinator for the food programs at West Valley Community Services who\u2019s been volunteering for the past three and a half years, helped pass out free fresh produce, pantry items and meats at a Feeding Our Neighborhoods event Tuesday, Oct. 6. No proof of Los Gatos residency or income verification required; simply an invitation for anyone to stop by and receive whatever food you need free of charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cA 30% increase year over year,\u201d said Sujatha Venkatraman, executive director for West Valley Community Services and 20-year volunteer. \u201cThat\u2019s been consistent for the last two years.\u201d That number is soon expected to rise. In March, NBC Bay Area reported \u201cfood insecurity for adults who earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level has increased from 26% in 2001 to 46% in 2024.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Feeding Our Neighborhoods is a nationwide initiative launched by Whole Foods Market in 2020. On Tuesday, in coordination with West Valley Community Services, the Los Gatos Whole Foods Market joined six other mobile food markets throughout the U.S. in observance of the company\u2019s Nourishing Our Neighborhoods Day.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t the first time Whole Foods Market teamed up with the local West Valley Community Services nonprofit. Whole Foods Market donated the refrigerated van West Valley Community Services relies on to deliver stores\u2019 surplus perishables like meat, poultry, milk and prepared food to seven different zip codes in the Bay Area. The van is hard to miss with its colorful fruits and veggies and a large Whole Foods Market decal painted on the sides and on the back.<\/p>\n

West Valley Community Services, established by three public health nurses, has been providing free food to South Bay communities for over 50 years (since 1973). On this warm summer day, volunteers sorted through food inside the donated van that would go to those experiencing food insecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the challenges that we face are basically capacity challenges,\u201d Bosacki said. \u201c\u2018Can we get this food\u2026to people that need it quickly enough before the food itself fails\u2019? It\u2019s, \u2018Do we have enough refrigerator and freezer space for the perishables that they can\u2019t sit outside?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DarrellVOLUNTEER \u2013 Darrell Bosacki, of West Valley Community Services, surveys inventory inside the organization\u2019s refrigerated van donated by Whole Foods Market. Bosacki and other volunteers handed out free food during a mobile food market event on Tuesday, Oct. 6 in recognition of Nourishing Our Neighborhoods Day. (Tyler Brunner \/ Los Gatan)<\/p>\n

The Los Gatos\u2019 Whole Foods Market\u2019s Store Team Lead Kendall Witthans also participated in the day\u2019s activities alongside some of her fellow team leaders. The community service provided by West Valley Community Services and Whole Foods Market mirrored what Witthans said was her store\u2019s biggest return on investment: community and service. \u201cI think the job is a lot of fun.\u201d Witthans said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a community of a store.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strategically, Witthans said the Los Gatos\u2019 Whole Foods\u2019 strategy for competing with nearby high-end grocery stores is to provide the best customer service. That return on investment has helped exceed the store\u2019s expectations week over week. The new store has topped their one million dollar quota every week since opening (with the exception of the Fourth of July holiday week).\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked what category she credited most for her store\u2019s success, Witthans replied, \u201cA team that is excelling right now, I\u2019m saying Prepared Foods. Yeah?\u201d she motioned towards her team leaders who nodded in agreement. \u201cNow it\u2019s kind of normal, but when we first opened, prepared foods was only supposed to do around $70,000 a week and they\u2019re doing over $105,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Witthans said she hopes to see the store\u2019s partnership with West Valley Community Services become a quarterly event. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to be doing it quarterly,\u201d Witthans said.
\u201cI think that\u2019s actually the company\u2019s promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know is experiencing food insecurity, you can reach out to West Valley Community Services at wvcommunityservices.org\/food<\/a> or by calling 408-255-8033 to enroll for services. West Valley Community Center hosts food markets Monday-Friday in both the morning and afternoon (only afternoon on Thursdays).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE BOSS\u00a0– Kendall Witthans, Los Gatos Whole Foods Market\u2019s Store Team Leader,\u00a0 stands in front of the prepared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[387,2623,194892,5751,47267,88,90,89,194893,50203],"class_list":["post-503797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-business","tag-grocery-store","tag-kendall-witthans","tag-nonprofit","tag-nutrition","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-west-valley-community-services","tag-whole-foods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}