Volunteers bring 2,500 hot meals to homeless encampments for the holidays [Video]

Even though Christmas is over, Bay Area nonprofits are still working hard to feed families in need. The Emeryville Citizens Assistance Program has made it a tradition to make sure the unhoused get a hot meal for the holidays. 

“I think that food is a basic need and everybody should be entitled to eat,” said Mary Maultsby-Jeffrey, who has been volunteering with ECAP for nearly 20 years. 

She has seen the homeless encampments in the East Bay evolve into what they are today. 

“We were the first people to feed at Wood Street. The first person to sleep at Wood Street lived in a dog house. The second and third person lived in dog houses. These were truly dog houses, little ones,” said Maultsby-Jeffrey. 

That encampment grew to be Oakland’s largest, spanning several blocks with hundreds of people before it was removed in 2023. 

ECAP has been helping the under-served …