Instead of cooking the meals in the church's kitchen, volunteers from St. Mary's Catholic Church will prepare the food—both in their own homes and at St. Mary's newly refurbished kitchen—and take it over to St. Luke's for the Nov. 26 luncheon.

The volunteers will contribute two turkeys, mashed potatoes, vegetables, bread and pumpkin pie to feed the 20 or so homeless who come to the event regularly.

For more than a year, the kitchen at St. Luke's has been out of operation, since county health inspectors deemed the facility in violation of standards and codes.

The church is permitted to funnel canned goods in the kitchen and can serve its own parishioners but is unable to prepare food on-site for the St. Luke's Pantry program, which serves meals to the homeless every Tuesday.

According to Jim Derryberry, member of the St. Luke's vestry, those health codes only apply to the church because it serves food to people from outside of the church for free. With additional services, Derryberry says, come additional requirements.

Food must be cooked off-site, which is what happened with last year's Thanksgiving lunch. "This year, shall we say, it'll be catered," said Jo Greiner, outreach coordinator for the church.

"Everything is shut down," Greiner said. "We can make ends meet that way, but we don't want to."

What needs to be done is to renovate the kitchen to bring it up to code. Those measures, Derryberry says, include replacing the countertops, sinks and drains, getting a fast-working dishwasher, purchasing an industrial-size refrigerator that will fit in the small kitchen, replacing the cooktop and upgrading the existing double ovens. Those appliances must not only "work well and accommodate a large potluck," Derryberry said, but must be energy-efficient, therefore being cost-efficient.

A subcommittee—consisting of Greiner, Derryberry and a third parishioner—has spent the past year trying to raise the projected $20,000 needed for the improvements. So far, the group has raised half of the amount, mostly through parishioners' donations and through the involvement of the Los Gatos Interfaith Outreach, of which Greiner is co-director.

Greiner plans to start visiting groups, such as local service clubs, to solicit more funding. "I'm calling everyone I can think of," Greiner said.

St. Mary's was drawn into the process when Greiner spoke at a St. Mary's Social Justice Committee meeting. According to committee member Loreen Huddleston, Greiner explained the services that St. Luke's provides for the homeless and mentioned the lack of a functional kitchen at the church.

Huddleston, along with a few other committee members, said to each other, "We've got this wonderful kitchen. Why can't we get together and help them out?"

More than 17 members of St. Mary's so far have signed up to help out with the Thanksgiving meal. Volunteering "is just a really wonderful opportunity for us to be able to help. It's just a no-brainer," Huddleston said. But, she added, "if I hear from many more, I'm going to have to start turning them away."

"We thought, as the first step, we should at least provide for the dinner," said Jane Ferguson, director of pastoral care and community ministry at St. Mary's. "As a community effort, it's really coming together."

What's more important than the dinner, however, is funding to get the kitchen fully operational again.

"Some people might say, 'Gee, it's only feeding 20 people,' but it's 20 hungry people. Twenty homeless people," Huddleston said.

Derryberry met with a county health inspector Nov. 14 and was told that churches and other nonprofit organizations have to comply with fewer codes than businesses do. "A number of things that we thought we would need to do we don't need to do," Derryberry said.

Despite the decreased size of the project, Derryberry says that the $20,000 goal still stands, since the necessary improvements will cost at least that much.

The subcommittee has been working with general contractor Gridley Company, specializing in bathroom and kitchen work, to come up with a design proposal that will satisfy both the county's requirements and the church's authorities.

Once the designs are approved and enough funding is secured, the church needs to obtain plumbing—and perhaps building—permits from the town of Los Gatos. Derryberry said, however, "With our scaled-down project, the permitting is quite simple."

For more information on St. Luke's Pantry and the kitchen renovation, contact Greiner at 408.354.1010.