MLK Day In CA: Newsom Serves Meals To Those In Need

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — As a nod to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s call to service, Gov. Gavin Newsom volunteered at St. Anthony's in San Francisco to celebrate King's life. The governor spent the day preparing hot meals for families in need and those experiencing housing insecurity.

St. Anthony's is a San Francisco nonprofit that supports low-income and homeless residents of the Tenderloin neighborhood. The nonprofit serves thousands of meals each day in addition to guiding those to services that provide medical care, clothing, computer access and addiction recovery services, according to a news release.

Newsom's participation was also part of the Presidential Inaugural Committee's "United We Serve: A Celebration of the National MLK Day of Service."

"Dr. King urged us all to step up in service of others and today we carry that call to action forward,” Newsom said on Monday. "As our nation prepares to turn the page with a new presidential administration, we have faith that our country can again show the world that we lead with compassion, inclusiveness and optimism. Our best days still lie ahead of us."

Across the country, California native Kamala Harris and President-elect Joe Biden also marked the holiday by joining an assembly line of an organization that distributes food to families in need in Philadelphia. The pair was seen masked up and filling boxes with both fresh and nonperishable food, according to multiple reports.

The inaugural committee was reportedly collaborating with service organizations nationwide, calling on Californians to volunteer on Monday and throughout the year.

"More than 50 years after his passing, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ideals are more salient than ever," Newsom wrote in his proclamation of the holiday. "His legacy reminds us that moral leadership does not require a person to be in elected office or hold a position of power. Instead, exercising moral authority requires the will to do the right thing. Standing on the shoulders of civil rights leaders before him and working in concert with a generation of activists, Dr. King helped transform how our country saw itself and its future."