For residents of the Sequoias retirement community in Portola Valley, mostly confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, pickups of a little something extra at the nearby Roberts Market have been a delight. A recent call for volunteers to help bag the items brought in an immediate and "overwhelming" response, said Mike Kerr, the store manager.

On Tuesday and Friday afternoons, the seniors drive up to the store, located on Alpine Road, and have items loaded into their trunks without having to leave the car. The residents have been on "super secret lockdown" and only leaving home for medical appointments for the most part, Kerr said.

"It just happened kind of organically when the Sequoia residents were locked down," said Kerr, who has managed the grocery store for five years. Residents email Kerr twice a week with their grocery requests. While the Sequoias provides residents with all the food they need, "sometimes they want a little more." Treats requested include bottles of wine, chocolate bars, cookies, crackers or soy milk.

The community has stepped up to help. An innumerable amount of people responded to Kerr's recent post on the Portola Valley Forum, an email forum for residents and members of the Portola Valley community, asking for volunteers to help bag groceries for the roughly 20 to 25 seniors who participate in the program.

"I stopped counting after taking 15 names," Kerr said. "We only really needed three to four (volunteers)."

The seniors thank Kerr "effusively" and tell him how much it makes the lockdown easier to deal with, he said.