Food and community at La Sala (The Living Room) Puente is built on the foundation of radical hospitality (practice of putting extraordinary effort and emphasis on making people feel welcome), and receiving strangers with open arms as brothers and sisters. This founding principle is perhaps most present in La Sala, Puente’s oldest program, where a newcomer can find a home-cooked meal and pleasant company twice a week. Most of the weekly participants are farmworkers on the South Coast, who are on their own here, without families. Many of the men who participate in La Sala have been living in Pescadero and the surrounding communities for several years. There are some newcomers, who are still acclimating to the community. The men come to the social hall of the Pescadero Community Church for a homemade meal and an essential dose of camaraderie that helps alleviate some of their intense isolation that comes from being so far from home. The single men who work in the fields and nurseries around Pescadero have always been able to count on La Sala, from the earliest days when the mission was defined as a ministry of bicycles, blankets and beans. Puente remains committed to “welcoming the stranger,” and creating a sense of “home” for everyone on the South Coast. 6,510 meals served 12