Sonoma Overnight Support is moving from the Grange to new Highway 12 location

To address soaring food insecurity in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma Overnight Support — with help of a $51,000 grant from the Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund — will be moving across Highway 12 to a more suitable location this summer.

“In the last three years, it’s been a 350% increase in the number of meals we’re serving,” SOS Executive Director Kathy King said. “So we were really outgrowing the Grange.”

Also known as the Sonoma Springs Community Hall, SOS began serving meals at the Highway 12 building in 2020. But following the devastating fires and pandemic, the need for food in the Valley has more than tripled in the past four years, King said. In 2019, SOS served 17,851 meals made by staff and volunteers, but by the end of 2022, that number jumped to 61,000.

SOS will use the grant funding to purchase a commercial stove and dishwasher to equip its new facility, which previously housed the skate shop Sonoma Originals.

The grant was inspired after a Jan. 31 report on food insecurity in by the Community Planning Collaborative, led by former Sonoma City Manager Cathy Capriola and resident Laurie Decker. The report, paid for by the Catalyst Fund, found that 8,000 residents in Sonoma Valley face some level of food insecurity.

“SOS is on the front lines working on food and feeding the hungry that are that are in our Valley,” Diana Sanson, grants chair for the Catalyst Fund, said. “One of the things that came out from the report is that we need to have do a better job of making food accessible to those who need it.”

Sanson said the Catalyst Fund knew SOS was looking for a new location to expand services, and the grant money — part of $500,000 gift from the nonprofit Community Foundation — created a “perfect storm” to help SOS outfit its new facility.

SOS secured a five-year lease for a building at 17400 Highway 12, a larger space which will reportedly “enable SOS to expand its program addressing the food need of unhoused and food-insecure individuals in Sonoma and Sonoma Valley,” the nonprofit announced in a news release.

“(The new location) has a setup for a commercial kitchen. It's in the Springs where we're feeding at least 55% of the people that we now feed,” King said.

While some renovations will be needed in new location, the bones of the facility are strong and will provide SOS additional office space for case management and the kitchen space to comfortably deliver more than 1,000 meals a week.

King is worried about the end of the statewide CalFresh’s emergency food allotments, which began in the pandemic but will cease in April, one of many COVID assistance programs that are winding down now that emergency health orders have been lifted.

“CalFresh is stopping giving any kind of food stamps or subsidies,” King said. “That is definitely impacting us, so people will be cut $90 to $200 a month for food.”

While SOS has yet to begin moving, King was optimistic operations will be up-and-running by summer. Until then, meals can still be accessed at the Grange, 18627 Highway 12, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday.

SOS will continue operating its current headquarters on First Street West, where it offers a Safe Parking Program for unhoused individuals.

Contact Chase Hunter at chase.hunter@sonomanews.com and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.