A Local Miracle

Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund

Community Foundation Santa Cruz County is teaming up with the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership on a new campaign called #CommunityCARES — building on an initiative that has given $3.1 million in grants to help people hurt most by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“We are filled with gratitude for the generosity and caring in our region,” said Community Foundation Santa Cruz County CEO Susan True. “It’s easy to feel helpless amid uncertainty, but there are direct actions we can take now. In times like these, giving locally is especially critical.”

Once schools were ordered closed March 12 to slow the spread of the contagious coronavirus COVID-19, Community Foundation Santa Cruz County created the COVID-19 Local Response Fund at www.cfscc.org/funds/covid-19-local-response-fund.

Many people are suffering financially due to sudden job loss and salary reductions after a “shelter in place” order was issued March 16; businesses were ordered to close unless they provided essential services.

The community foundation and its donor advisers made #CommunityCARES grants to nonprofits providing food, shelter, care and other basic needs for those impacted most. In several instances, funds went to technology to connect nonprofit staff working from home. Some of the largest grants were:

• $100,000 to Hospice Santa Cruz County and $75,000 to Jacob’s Heart for unanticipated costs of caregiving for the ill.
• $60,000 to Community Bridges, which moved all senior services to home-based care with roving nurses, provided services to people served by Mountain Community Resources, Nueva Vista Family Resources, La Manzana Community Resources, Live Oak Family Resources and bought a freezer for Meals on Wheels.
• $60,000 to Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County for food and hygiene kits for farmworker families, and emergency rental assistance.
• $30,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank, which reports distributing 250 percent more food this year, for temporary help as volunteers disappeared and emergency locations as group meal facilities closed.
• $30,000 to Grey Bears for temporary help and to buy fresh vegetables.
• $30,000 to Salvation Army to expand their shelters for the unhoused to operate 24/7 and food for families.
• $30,000 to Housing Matters for safety and sanitation personnel, increased meal costs, buying more beds.
• $30,000 to Pajaro Valley Shelter Services to help cover residents’ rent payments as they face job loss and for hygiene supplies.
• $25,000 to Teen Kitchen Project for increased meal and packaging costs and to increase healthy meal delivery service to clients with life-threatening illnesses.
• $25,000 to Valley Churches United Missions for emergency food, rental and utility assistance to low-income families and seniors in San Lorenzo Valley.
• $20,000 to Pajaro Valley Prevention & Student Assistance for telehealth behavioral health services with youth and services to client families without income and ineligible for benefits.
• $20,000 to Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz County, $20,000 to Watsonville Family YMCA and $20,000 to YMCA of the Redwoods for very small group child care to meet the needs of essential workers who must be at work.
• $20,000 to Center for Farmworker Families and $20,000 to Catholic Charities for emergency rent assistance to their most vulnerable families.
• $18,200 to County Office of Education, Cruz One & Cruzio to provide internet access at no charge to families of low-income students for distance learning in the wake of countywide school closures.

Smaller #CommunityCARES grants were awarded to Families in Transition, Salud Para La Gente, Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos, Santa Cruz Community Health Centers, Senior Network Services and St. Francis Soup Kitchen.

All funds stay local and help local people.

“I am speechless. This grant helps me pay my rent and shelter all of my kids who are also home from college and high school,” said a student at Cabrillo College who got help from the Cabrillo College Foundation. “This news is a miracle.”

Ann Lopez, executive director of the Center for Farmworker Families, said, “We were able to help 20 hardworking families pay their rent in April. To see the relief and joy on their faces was a blessing.”

At Teen Kitchen Project, which teaches teens to cook up healthy meals for people with health and financial challenges, Angela Farley, the executive director, said, “We are pulling out all the stops to serve our clients. Thanks to you, we are able to do this without the worry of doing it alone.”

Funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act are expected soon in local mailboxes. The goal of #CommunityCares is to encourage residents who may not need all of their stimulus checks to donate what they can to the local COVID-19 Response Fund in their county to benefit those who need it most.

One donor by the name of Debbie said, “I’m one of the lucky ones that can still get by on my salary, so I’m committing half of my check to help local families who need it to make it through this.”

“It’s been beautiful to see how our region has already supported each other,” said Monterey Bay Economic Partnership President and CEO Kate Roberts. “This new #CommunityCARES campaign builds on that sense of community to ‘pay it forward’ to help many in our region who are hurting.”

•••

To give, visit https://www.cfscc.org/funds/covid-19-local-response-fund