{"id":87041,"date":"2025-07-23T22:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/87041\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T22:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:27:14","slug":"la-comida-welcomes-new-executive-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/87041\/","title":{"rendered":"La Comida welcomes new executive director"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bill Blodgett, a La Comida board member, and Marie Ruth Batchelder, manager at La Comida, prepare to give seniors food at Stevenson House in Palo Alto. Photo by Magali Gauthier.<\/p>\n

Every weekday for 53 years, seniors in Palo Alto have gathered for a free, hot, healthy meal, accompanied by conversation, live music, and the warmth of community, all thanks to local organization La Comida<\/a>. Now, Deborah Grant, their new executive director, wants to share their story to bring more community awareness to La Comida\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people who really don\u2019t know what La Comida does,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fact that this work has never wavered and every day seniors are offered a healthy, nutritious meal is pretty extraordinary.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grant has been working in the nonprofit sector for her entire career, and joined La Comida after working with ReSurge<\/a> and Digital NEST<\/a>. She started at La Comida in June after a six-week process which included interviews with board members, meeting staff and providing a plan for the organization\u2019s future. Grant said she is \u201cvery impressed and compelled by the mission of La Comida,\u201d and now hopes to bring more awareness to the work that is being done.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Deborah Grant<\/p>\n

\u201c(La Comida) has unfortunately been one of the best kept secrets in this area,\u201d she said. \u201c(I\u2019m) looking to bring the community of Palo Alto into our dining room, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hopes that better awareness will help increase support and funding for their mission, especially as non-profits face potential federal funding cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an investment in the community and into a very special segment of our community,\u201d she said. \u201cI look forward to spreading the word and \u2026 increasing our support base throughout this area of the Peninsula and beyond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She finds the work done at La Comida to be \u201cextraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe menu changes every day, the food is meticulously planned to meet nutritional needs of this demographic, and it\u2019s a lovely, amazing, happy sight to see when you come into the dining room and folks are not only enjoying a great, healthy meal, but they\u2019re also making friends, being within the community,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said that La Comida goes beyond just meals.<\/p>\n

\u201cLa Comida is not just food \u2014 it is community, where we provide educational information such as fall prevention, and blood pressure clinics, nutrition and health advice, live entertainment and most importantly, we provide a place for seniors to gather, many who are often isolated with no family,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cThey count on us to be there for them every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Comida will be moving into a second permanent home<\/a> in Downtown Palo Alto later this year, adding a north Palo Alto home base to complement their south Palo Alto location at Stevenson House.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to bringing even more folks and making it more available to the seniors in our community,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n

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