Remote Surveillance Trailer in Turlock, CA

Construction is well under way on making part of South Golden State Boulevard less baffling to Turlock-area drivers.

The problem is where Berkeley Avenue crosses Golden State and becomes Golf Road. It would seem to be a simple four-way intersection. Instead, it has eight stop signs within about a 200-foot radius, including frontage roads from the time when Golden State was Highway 99.

Stanislaus County Public Works funded the $7.53 millon project from local, state and federal sources. It could be done by mid-October.

The project also will upgrade the Berkeley crossing of the Union Pacific Railroad, which parallels Golden State. The current pavement on Berkeley is about 4 feet lower than the track, a bumpy ride for drivers. It will be raised and widened at this spot.

The county Board of Supervisors approved the project June 3. It is just south of the Turlock city limit.

The street portion is being done on a $4.45 million contract with George Reed Inc. of Modesto. UP crews will fix the crossing for an additonal $1.52 million. The other costs include engineering, utility relocations and inspections.

Most of the work has been done without major detours, but that changed last week. Closures will be in place until Oct. 10 where both Berkeley and Golf Road enter Golden State. The former state highway itself will remain open. It is a quick way toward downtown and east Turlock for drivers from Merced County and points south.

The project will result in one set of traffic lights on Golden State and another at Berkeley and Paulson. They will automatically shift to red when a freight train is approaching. The site already has crossing arms, bells and lights to warn drivers.

The project also will bring crosswalks to aid pedestrians and curb ramps for wheelchairs. Drivers will get left-turn pockets.

Most of the funding is from a $6.03 million federal grant. The project got $824,998 from the county’s Measure L sales tax and $620,625 from the state fuel tax. Turlock kicked in $53,000 for moving utility lines that run north into the city.

More information on the detours and other details are on the project website.

A new Stanislaus County food truck is serving up savory sandwiches with a side of optimism. Opened Aug. 6, the Opportunity Truck is the newest venture from the Turlock Gospel Mission’s Nourish Kitchen program.

Open Wednesdays, Thursdays and every other Friday, from noon to 2 p.m., the truck offers handheld foods that are anything but typical.

“This looks incredible,” one excited customer said as she picked up her teriyaki chicken sandwich served on a potato bun with pickled carrots, shaved cabbage and spicy mayo.

Other menu items include the TGM burger with colby jack from Hilmar Cheese and bacon jam; a Turlock dog on a fresh-baked bolillo roll topped with tomato, onions, jalapenos, a pickle and special sauce; and the chizza melt, a grilled cheese and pizza hybrid served with salsa verde. The truck also serves cookies, custards and hand-cut french fries cooked in beef tallow.

The menu was developed by John Martin, a former Bay Area chef with decades of executive culinary experience. Martin left the Bay Area to live closer to family. He joined Turlock Gospel Mission as director of social enterprise and nutritional services in January and has been instrumental in launching the truck.

“We focus on the task at hand and do that 100% whether it’s peeling a potato or sweeping the floor, just focus on the moment and do that best job,” said Martin. “We’re trying to create that routine and not having to worry about anything else outside of the kitchen, trying to create the kitchen as sort of a sanctuary for your mind, body and soul. You don’t have to worry about anything else,” he said.

The Opportunity Truck is a project coming out of the Nourish Kitchen program at Turlock Gospel Mission. More than just a culinary skills program, this initiative helps lift people out of homelessness and prepares them for success in the workforce by teaching them life skills and offering job resources after graduating from the program.

Christian Curby, the executive director of the mission, said he was inspired to start a program like this when he was living in Seattle and visited a fine dining restaurant operated by former homeless and incarcerated individuals. Curby joined Turlock Gospel Mission in 2016 and launched Nourish Kitchen in 2019.

A 2023 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture expanded the program, and to date, 125 people have graduated. Of those, about 70 entered the workforce and many are in independent housing.

Curby said Nourish Kitchen is more than a job-readiness program — it’s a way to put vulnerable individuals on the path to success.

“Our program is broken into three phases,” he said. “The first is stability, with housing and activities to increase a person’s stability. The second is job readiness, the actual Nourish Kitchen program. And third is ‘launch pad,’ which is an opportunity for them to go out and find work and come up with a transitional plan out of the shelter.”

The Nourish Kitchen program is about a year long, with the core training taking about six months.

“I love it here. I feel so blessed,” said Michelle Camarata, a participant in the weeks-old cohort. “I recently lost my job and my housing, and I thank God every day for them allowing me to be here and just being busy and feeling valuable again. It’s just a beautiful feeling,” she said.

Camarata expressed interest in working on the food truck because she loves interacting with people. Recently, she was making cookies to serve on the truck as it was getting ready to go out to its site.

The Opportunity Truck will eventually operate in different locations throughout the area, but for now, it is parked at the Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority on Sisk Road. This site will also be the new home of Nourish Kitchen. The large kitchen at the former Clarion Inn and event space is undergoing renovation in preparation for the program, and Curby said he is hopeful the kitchen will open in the fall.

A previous Bee story highlighted the recent opening of the low-cost housing initiative with 143 studio apartments at the site. The event was catered by students in the Nourish Kitchen program.

The current Nourish Kitchen center will remain open to serve people at the Turlock shelter, Curby said, but the new space will be the headquarters for the training program and will accommodate three times as many students. The current class is about 30 people, and the new site will allow for close to 100 students per cohort.

The Opportunity Truck is now open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and every other Friday from noon-2 p.m. at 1612 Sisk Road. On Tuesdays and every other Friday the truck will be at Fresh Ideas Flower Company at 1302 9th St. from noon-2 p.m. For updated hours and information visit their Instagram page at .

A tale of two Starbucks locations unfolded over the past week in Turlock.

On Saturday, the Starbucks location at 2870 W. Monte Vista Ave. within the Target shopping center abruptly shut their doors for good. The very next day, the coffee chain opened up shop at 1100 W. Monte Vista Ave., across from the Stanislaus State campus.

The new location near Stan State, which is also across the street from Dutch Bros, was slated to be the 11th Starbucks in Turlock when it was first proposed in the summer of 2023. But the recent closure of the other Monte Vista location and the Stan State campus decreasing from two on-campus Starbucks spots to only one makes the current count at nine.

The sudden closure of the 2870 W. Monte Vista coffee shop came two days after Starbucks announced Thursday that it would be immediately closing hundreds of stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe and laying off 900 nonretail employees.

There was no announcement other than a note on the front door, which read: “We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to close this Starbucks at the end of this week. We know this may be hard to hear — because this isn’t just any store. It’s your coffeehouse, a place woven into your daily rhythm, where memories are made, and where meaningful connections with our partners grew over the years. We’re deeply grateful for the community that’s been built here.”

The same note was posted at the entrances of shuttered Starbucks’ across the nation.

In a letter sent to employees Thursday, Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol said a review of the company’s stores identified locations where the company doesn’t see a path to financial stability or isn’t able to create the physical environment customers expect. Those stores are being closed, while other existing locations or new ones like the one across from Stan State will help ring in a rebrand of sorts.

Starbucks plans to introduce protein drinks, new baked goods and a new dark roast coffee next year. It will also test beverages made with coconut water, customizable energy drinks, and gluten-free and high-protein foods. The company said in July that it’s confident that the new products and improved store operations will soon help turn around the company’s lagging U.S. sales.

Starbucks reported that its revenue rose 4% to $9.5 billion in its fiscal third quarter, better than the $9.3 billion Wall Street expected, according to analysts polled by FactSet. But same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 2% in the April-June period. That was a bigger decline than Wall Street expected, and it was the sixth straight quarter that the Seattle-based company reported lower same-store sales.

The new location across from the college, in the shopping center that formerly housed Rite-Aid and still includes popular food destinations like Fire Wings and Daraman, is open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.