Every Saturday, dozens of unhoused San Diegans line up outside the Small Potatoes Foundation’s pop-up in Pacific Beach for a home-cooked meal and a brief reprieve after a week of hardship. The menu includes Waldorf chicken salad sandwiches with fresh herbs, freshly baked muffins, fruit, and coffee—organic when possible, and all made with love. The weekly brunch has grown over the last year and a half into a mission of hope, connection, and nourishment.
That mission is deeply personal for Small Potatoes’ founder, former caterer and personal chef Jodie Armer. The nonprofit is a way to honor her late son, Heath, who struggled with schizophrenia and homelessness before a fentanyl overdose took his life two years ago.
“We were doing all we could as parents and it really came down to just feeding him, trying to meet up with him and get him a meal,” she says. “I kept thinking, I hope somebody’s kind to my child out there.”
She channeled her grief into cooking, first just loading her car with home-cooked meals, driving downtown, and feeding as many people as she could. Then word spread and people began reaching out for more help. Though witnessing the stark realities of some of her guests’ circumstances weighed heavy on her heart, she kept going. She moved the operation to PB and, with the help of a team of volunteers recruited through a hobby cooking group she hosts, now serves roughly 100 people every weekend (plus a handful of pets).
Armer and company have come to know the guests and their stories—many heartbreaking—sparking a larger conversation on how easily someone can fall through the cracks. She concedes that the organization can’t really rescue anyone, only show them kindness and dignity. Even a gesture as small as looking a guest in the eye becomes an act of compassion.
“It’s humbling,” she says. “But all in all, I think they appreciate the kindness and a meal that’s made with love, things they don’t normally get.”
The Small Potatoes Foundation is preparing to begin serving meals at a second location in Bankers Hill. Armer says she would expand further, but securing funding to feed a growing number of guests has been a challenge.
“But we’ll find a way,” she says. “That’s what we do.”
