By the middle of a typical month, the Catholic Worker’s soup kitchen on Los Angeles’ Skid Row would have served about 80 gallons of beans, to go with the salad and bread it hands out as part of every meal it serves. Since the pandemic struck, said Matt Harper, an organizer with the lay Catholic community, its clientele was going through about double that amount.

Harper, 31, said he’s noticed that many of the church groups and community organizations that provide food services to Skid Row — a 54-block area in downtown LA that is often tagged as the nation’s largest homeless encampment — have been running out of resources. “Folks were going longer and longer in between meals,” Harper said.

For the Catholic Worker’s meal center, known as the Hippie Kitchen, meeting the increased need while preventing the spread of coronavirus has meant improvising — both in how it provides its services and how it prevents the spread of the virus.