Now in its 12th year, the Town Crier Holiday Fund continues its mission to support a variety of local non-profit agencies that efficiently and effectively provide goods and resources to the area’s underserved population.
Two Holiday Fund recipients are profiled below. Watch for features on other groups supported by the fund in upcoming issues of the Town Crier.
CSA’s Food and Nutrition Center
Beyond providing groceries for low-income residents, the Community Services Agency’s Food and Nutrition Center is a place that promotes healthful habits when it comes to eating.
CSA staffers stress the importance of good nutrition to their clients and offer them recipes that incorporate the array of fresh fruits and vegetables available at the Mountain View non-profit organization.
“It makes a huge difference in the lives of people who are trying to keep their heads above water,” CSA Associate Director Maureen Wadiak said of the center that serves needy residents of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View. “We’re not only providing food, which is such a basic need, but trying to keep them healthy.”
CSA distributes an average of 3,750 pounds of food each week, according to Wadiak, and 69 percent of it is deemed healthful. Local grocery stores – Andronico’s Community Market, Draegers Market, Safeway, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Market – along with the Mountain View Farmers’ Market, Hidden Villa’s organic farm and Village Harvest, a volunteer group that gathers fruit from backyards and small orchards, donate most of the food.
When CSA is short on supplies, the agency purchases food at a discount from Costco and Nob Hill Foods, stores that also contribute to the cause. Wadiak said money from the Town Crier Holiday Fund goes toward purchasing these reserves.
“Thanks to the generosity of the community, we’ve never run out of food,” she said. “We may have to pare back a little when supplies are low, but everyone walks away with food.”
CSA’s challenge to meet the needs of its clients has grown since the economic downturn. The center serves nearly 22 percent more people than it did four years ago, according to Wadiak, and last year provided food for 3,459 clients. Some are unemployed, others hold low-paying jobs in service industries and many have families to feed.
“Food prices are up dramatically this year, and fresh produce is out of their financial grasp,” Wadiak said. “We’re able to minimize food insecurity and the worries about how they’re going to pull together the next meal.”
Unlike other community food pantries, CSA’s center is set up like a store.
“We allow them to shop for themselves and select foods their families like instead of handing them premade bags,” Wadiak said.
CSA’s Food and Nutrition Center is open two to four hours weekdays at 204 Stierlin Road, Mountain View.
For more information, visit www.csacares.org.
Community Health Awareness Council
Monique Kane, executive director of the Community Health Awareness Council (CHAC), had a former client return after completing the agency’s 12-week substance-abuse program. Although one of the Mountain View non-profit’s missions is to support students as they turn their backs on drugs, she said it wasn’t disheartening to see the student come back.
Rather, it proved the program’s effectiveness.
“He said he liked it and wanted more (treatment),” Kane said. “And he got a job so he would pay for it himself.”
CHAC’s substance-abuse therapist, Veronica Frost, said that often, even after patients withdraw from drugs, the social groups they built during their addiction remain. And that’s where axing the habit can become difficult.
But because CHAC provides an atmosphere to remind clients “you don’t have to do this alone,” Frost said, it makes the transition to sobriety that much smoother.
CHAC provides services that address a variety of emotional issues affecting children and teens. Many school districts don’t or can’t maintain mental-health services, so CHAC works to fill the void.
It serves Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View residents, although Kane said they wouldn’t refuse help to anyone.
Nearly a year ago, Santa Clara County cut the funding for CHAC’s substance-abuse program. Because the organization depended on that $60,000, it had to put the program on hiatus.
Now, with the help of donor funding, CHAC has been able to retool the program – named Well Within – which employs therapy, support and education to build the skills and confidence needed to create a healthy future.
The program involves a 12-week regimen of therapy, education groups, family involvement, training for transitioning support from CHAC to the family, clean-and-sober events for teens, random drug testing and relapse prevention if necessary.
“Using established therapeutic approaches, Well Within helps participants discover and embrace healthful alternatives to drug and alcohol use, thereby positively impacting the family and community as well as their own lives,” according to CHAC documents.
Kane said Town Crier Holiday Fund donations help fund the staff necessary to treat clients.
“We don’t just see kids,” she said, “and we don’t turn anyone away.”
For more information, visit chacmv.org.
There are three ways to give: Mail donations payable to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (Attn: Town Crier Holiday Fund) to 2440 W. El Camino Real, Suite 300, Mountain View 94040; call 450-5444 to use a credit card; or donate online by visiting www.siliconvalleycf.org/latc-holiday-fund.
For more information, visit www.latcholidayfund.org.
