 | By Soumya Karlamangla |
It's Tuesday. I'm reporting from San Mateo County, one of the most unaffordable places in the nation. The number of people signed up for food stamps here has jumped by 41 percent since the pandemic began, the biggest increase of any county in California. |
 | | Fabian De La Torre, left, and Abe Haba loaded groceries into a client's car at a San Mateo food bank on Monday.Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
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SAN MATEO — Felipe Ruiz Gonzalez pulled into the parking lot and unlocked his trunk, a familiar ritual of the past 16 months. |
He watched in the rearview window Monday morning as masked volunteers began to load up his car with groceries. |
Cartons of eggs. A loaf of bread. Fresh herbs. A box of squash and peppers. Salami. A gallon of milk. Cans of beans. |
Early in the pandemic, Gonzalez, 66, lost his job at a restaurant and his wife lost hers at a department store. The couple moved out of their $1,100-per-month apartment and into an R.V. |
As they struggled to make ends meet, they began coming here to the Samaritan House, a nonprofit organization, to pick up groceries once a week. |
Gonzalez, who moved to the U.S. from Peru in 2019, handed me a worn piece of paper listing the dates he has received food from the organization — yesterday was his 58th visit. He hopes to pay them back someday. |
"We didn't know how we could live without jobs and money," Gonzalez told me. "We tell other families about this place." |
The economic toll of the pandemic has left thousands of Californians without enough food on the table. |
 | | Volunteers and staff at Samaritan House in San Mateo prepare meals for shut-ins.Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
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San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco and home to the headquarters of Facebook and other major corporations, has experienced the largest increase in food stamp enrollment in the state since January 2020, with a 41 percent jump in the number of people here relying on CalFresh, the monthly food benefit program, according to agency data. |
"The underlying level of need was always much greater than people realized," Bart Charlow, the chief executive of Samaritan House, told me. "Any hike in the cost of anything just pushes them over the edge. Covid pushed a hell of a lot of people over the edge." |
Living in San Mateo County is so expensive that the federal government considers a family of four making as much as $146,350 per year low income. That threshold in New York City and Los Angeles County is far lower, at approximately $95,000. |
 | | Luz Maria Araki and her husband, Felipe Ruiz Gonzalez, received two dozen eggs at the food bank.Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
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At Samaritan House, the number of meals delivered has increased by around 80 percent. At Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, a food bank that serves San Mateo and neighboring Santa Clara counties, their clientele has doubled in the past 18 months. |
"This is the most people we have ever served by a very long shot," said Tracy Weatherby, Second Harvest's vice president of strategy and marketing. "This need is not likely to go down anytime soon." |
Weatherby said she thought the pandemic had helped normalize receiving food assistance. |
"There were a lot of people prepandemic who needed our services but may have been concerned about the stigma," she said. "We think what has happened is a lot of the people who utilized our food during the pandemic are people who probably need our assistance on an ongoing basis." |
Earlier this month, Gonzalez began a new job as a delivery driver. But he was hired for only 28 hours a week, so is looking for additional work. |
Until then, he will be back at Samaritan House next week. |
 | | When cars were banned on a road in Golden Gate Park, cyclists rejoiced. The de Young Museum worried that the loss of a major access road would deter visitors.Cayce Clifford for The New York Times |
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If you read one story, make it this |
John F. Kennedy Drive, the broad boulevard that cuts through Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, was closed to cars during the pandemic, transforming it into a pedestrian-friendly paradise. Over the weekend, I saw parents running with strollers, children learning how to bike and people dancing in roller skates in the middle of the roadway. |
But the future of the road is up in the air. While parkgoers want cars permanently banned, the de Young Museum, located inside the park, worries that the closure will hamper its attempts to regain visitors. |
As my colleague Adam Nagourney writes, "This six-lane road has become a flash point, pitting two historically influential constituencies — cultural institutions and park enthusiasts — against each other in a divisive debate about public space, the arts and the priorities of a city rethinking its future after the pandemic." |
 | | The megafires of the West are sending out giant clouds of smoke and leaving a footprint much larger than the evergreen forests they level and the towns they decimate.Jungho Kim for The New York Times |
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- Low vaccination rates: Just 43 percent of eligible Tulare County residents are vaccinated against Covid-19, according to The Fresno Bee, and some communities within the county — called "vaccination deserts" — have even lower rates. Community advocates blame distrust and misinformation.
- Charges against L.A.P.D. officer: The California attorney general's office filed manslaughter and assault charges against Salvador Sanchez, a former Los Angeles police officer. Sanchez was off duty when he fatally shot a disabled man in a Costco in Corona in 2019.
- L.A.P.D. explosion aftermath: Since the Los Angeles Police Department accidentally blew up a residential street in South Los Angeles a month ago, displaced families have been struggling, The Los Angeles Times reports.
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- Mendocino: Despite being located along several waterways, forested Mendocino has relied on wells for its water supply for the past century. But the drought crippling the West is drying up the tourist town's aquifers, The Guardian reports.
- J.&J. supplement: By the end of the week, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital will provide a supplemental vaccine dose for city residents who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to ABC 7.
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 | | Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich |
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This colorful jumble of veggies and mozzarella has everything you've ever wanted in a pasta salad. |
Today's California travel tip comes from Hilary Steinman, a reader who lives in Lafayette. Hilary writes: |
My husband and I recently visited Old Towne Orange, about 40 minutes south of downtown Los Angeles. We ate delicious food at Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen (which we discovered is on the California Michelin Guide!), explored the Hilbert Museum of California Art, and walked around the quaint downtown area that surrounds Chapman University. Orange is like a time capsule to Southern California of the 1950s and 1960s with its charming historic homes, and small town vibe. It was refreshing to get out of our car and enjoy this adorable community on foot. |
I'm looking for the weirdest or most creative ways that businesses, health care workers and local governments are encouraging people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Email me at CAtoday@nytimes.com with any tips. |
 | | The Perseid meteor shower seen from Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Monday.Dado Ruvic/Reuters |
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And before you go, some good news |
The best time to view the shower, which typically peaks in mid-August, will be between 11 p.m. Wednesday and 3 a.m. Thursday, according to the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland. The moon will set early that night so the skies will be extra dark, ideal conditions for laying out a blanket and looking up at the stars. |
If everything goes according to plan, observers may see as many as 100 meteors an hour soaring through the sky. |
Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya |
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