Community Archives - The Six Fifty

Neighbors feeding neighbors: Rebyl Food connects Coastside community

Half Moon Bay-based Rebyl Food is delivering local produce, meat, seafood and other goods to Coastside customers.

Evacuation zone aid: A restaurant owner’s quest to feed left-behind locals

Andy Kerr of Alice’s Restaurant in Woodside makes daily deliveries to firefighters and holdouts in the wildfire zone Andy Kerr, co-owner of Alice’s Restaurant, drives behind a San Mateo County Sheriff vehicle through the CZU August Lightning Complex fires evacuation zone on August 25th. (Photo by Magali Gauthier) Andy Kerr of Alice’s Restaurant in Woodside makes daily deliveries to firefighters and holdouts in the wildfire zone With wildfire smoke blanketing the Santa Cruz ...

Meet the evacuated animals of the CZU wildfire

Aided by donations and community hustle, the Cow Palace rallied on short notice to house over 200 local animals displaced by the nearby fires. 6–5–0 LLocal: One of the four llamas currently being housed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, which has served as a local evacuation center for large animals and livestock who have been endangered by the CZU Lightning Complex wildfires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. ...

Wildfires in the 6–5–0: how to help and where to donate locally

Donate a meal, shelter an animal, offer up lodgings….and many more ways to pitch in. The La Honda Fire Station, home to a volunteer fire brigade, is situated near the northern part of the CZU August Lightning Complex. (Photo by Kate Bradshaw) Fire season has returned and with a vengeance, as an assortment of different wildfires continue to burn around the state. Here in the 6–5–0 area code, the south coast area ...

Fruitful giving: Farm-to-neighbors delivery project supports farmers, frontline workers

Delivering produce, donating proceeds: How the pandemic opened up a grassroots opportunity for small farms Emily Hong and her mother, Tiffany, place a carton of apricots in their car at the Giving Fruits pickup in Palo Alto on July 17, 2020. (Photo by Magali Gauthier) It started with a box of cherries. Maria Gregorio, a Palo Alto resident and Stanford University IT professional, saw a Nextdoor post in May from a neighbor organizing ...

How 12 million pounds of food gets distributed during a pandemic

A day in the life of Second Harvest food bank. National Guard troops work in Curtner Center, one of four Second Harvest of Silicon Valley warehouses, on June 16, 2020. (Photo by Magali Gauthier) A line of cars stretched through the parking lot of the Mountain View Senior Center on Tuesday morning, drivers waiting patiently for boxes of fresh produce, milk, eggs, canned goods and chicken to be placed in their trunks ...

Menlo Park almost lost Cafe Borrone to the shutdown. Then the community stepped in to save it.

Menlo Park almost lost its beloved Cafe Borrone to the shutdown. Then the community stepped in to save it. Marina Borrone’s GoFundMe strategy yields a much-needed lifeline while on the brink of closure. (Photo by Magali Gauthier) The coronavirus shutdown nearly claimed one of the Peninsula’s most beloved eating establishments, Cafe Borrone in Menlo Park. After temporarily shuttering the longtime cafe in March, Marina Borrone, whose parents opened the first Cafe Borrone in Redwood City in 1979, ...

No money? No problem: 5 hands-on ways to help those in need on the Peninsula

Penniless heroes, unite! Walk a dog, make masks or write letters to fight the lonelies. Dianne Jenett, 72, smiles at Sunita de Tourreil after she brought her a bag of groceries from Whole Foods Market in downtown Palo Alto on March 18, 2020. When de Tourreil drops off the groceries, the two friends chat while keep a safe amount of space between them. (Photo by Magali Gauthier) Stuck sheltering in place but ...

Steve Rasmussen of Milk Pail Market on how to help our small businesses and their employees

Longtime Mountain View market owner offers six ideas for how to help small businesses during COVID-19 Guest opinion by Steve Rasmussen Steve Rasmussen, owner of the Milk Pail Market, poses for a portrait in the grocery store with his daughters Erika and Kai on June 4, 2019. (Photo by Magali Gauthier) Small businesses add pizzazz and vibrancy to our lives. Keeping restaurants, nail salons, day care centers and other small local businesses alive through ...

‘We’re the ones everyone’s counting on.’ Here’s how local grocery stores are responding to Covid-19

Karen Himmaugh, wearing a mask and gloves, rings up Barbara Bunker’s groceries from behind a plexiglass barrier at Piazza’s Fine Foods in Palo Alto on April 9, 2020. (Photo by Magali Gauthier) ‘We’re the ones everyone’s counting on.’ Here’s how local grocery stores are responding to the coronavirus Eggs are sold out. Hand sanitizer is on backorder. Strained staff are working overtime, on the front lines as grocery stores quickly adapt. Running a local ...