In mid-March, State Senator Bob Wieckowski recognized Sandra Dailey as the 10th Senate District’s Woman of the Year. Dailey, a chef and caterer, owns Sandi’s Cobbler Cups (www.sandiscatering.com) and runs a concession stand at Levi’s Stadium. During the pandemic, this generous Santa Clara resident has been preparing meals for families and seniors in need.
“I’m humbled and honored to be recognized,” Dailey said. “Wow. My heart is full. It makes me know that God has given me this gift. I love what I do.”
According to Dailey, most of the food she has prepared in her community service came from volunteering with a San Jose-based non-profit organization called Hunger at Home (www.hungerathome.org).
“The food I make for Hunger at Home are free for families in need,” Dailey said. “I go there and I help them repurpose food that has been donated to them. For example, I’ve baked thousands of cookies that were donated to me from Dough To Go.”
Sandi’s Cobbler Cups was founded in 2011 after Dailey left her job in the biotech industry as a Manager in Sales and Marketing. Before the pandemic, Dailey was cooking and catering Cajun cuisine for companies in Silicon Valley, such as Google, Apple, and Intel, through EZCater (www.ezcater.com).
“COVID hit and then all those companies went bye-bye because now, everybody is working from home,” Dailey said. “So when the pandemic hit, I had to recreate myself.”
During the pandemic, Dailey learned that a few seniors from her church, University AME Zion Church in Palo Alto, needed assistance with meals. Soon, the senior community, from Santa Clara to the East Bay, began enjoying Dailey’s meals. Outside of volunteering for Hunger at Home, Dailey has been making about 60 to 80 free and discounted individual meals for seniors each week on her own.
“I recreated my meals and started doing individual meals that required delivery and/or pick up,” Dailey said. “Every Sunday, I put out a new menu (www.facebook.com/SandisCobblerCups) and the seniors can choose a minimum of five meals and three entrees by Wednesday.”
Dailey’s entrees for her individual meals have included meatloaf, baked catfish, smothered chicken thighs and eggplant parmesan.
Now that many local seniors have received their COVID-19 vaccinations, they have been grocery shopping and cooking for themselves again. Dailey notes that this is good news but that the volume of her paying customers have decreased. Although Dailey is an active volunteer, she still has a business to run.
“My biggest source of income is through Levi’s Stadium, where I run a concession stand, Sandi’s Soul Food,” said Dailey of the venue where she sells seafood gumbo, jambalaya, mac and cheese and peach cobber cups. “When Levi’s Stadium reopens, they are changing their protocol with the number of people they are allowing in the stadium. Every stadium in the country is doing that. The number of people in the stadium will determine how many people will come to my concession stand.”
Email Dailey at sandiscobblercups@gmail.com for more information about her meals for seniors and her catering services through Sandi’s Catering.
