GILROY
– Like anyone who devots his or her life to helping a seemingly
endless string of needy people, Jacqui Merriman can’t help but be
an optimist.
”
I’m excited. I just got my first turkey,
”
said Merriman, food distribution coordinator at St. Joseph’s
Family Center, 7950 Church St.
”
I need 500. I know they’ll come; all they have to do is come
flocking in.
”
GILROY – Like anyone who devots his or her life to helping a seemingly endless string of needy people, Jacqui Merriman can’t help but be an optimist.
“I’m excited. I just got my first turkey,” said Merriman, food distribution coordinator at St. Joseph’s Family Center, 7950 Church St. “I need 500. I know they’ll come; all they have to do is come flocking in.”
And why not be optimistic. In Merriman’s five years at the Family Center, she has seen countless acts of kindness from people all over the community, including people who come in every week after going shopping with an extra bag of grocieries to be donated to the needy.
“You start to recognize the faces, but I couldn’t tell you their names,” Merriman said of the anonymous donors. “They don’t want a donation slip, they just want to give the food.”
St. Joseph’s is preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas, when as many as 500 families are expected to be in need in South County.
Merriman could spend an hour naming off all of the contributors to the four food donation programs run by St. Joseph’s, which has been serving the South County area since 1962, from weekly food donations from Nob Hill and Safeway to the Boy Scouts of America to community businesses and schools to Starbucks, which donates its leftover pastries and doughnuts at the end of the day.
“It’s hard to think of all the people who make a difference and keep this going,” Merriman said. “It goes on and on and on.”
And as each donation of food or money is made, another group of needy people are fed, and St. Joseph’s grows stronger. So strong, in fact, that it is now the largest outreach agency in South County and became independent this summer through the work of Executive Director David Cox.
“When David got here, he thought the churches had done so much for us, and we should do something for ourselves,” Merriman said.
St. Joseph’s was under the wing of the Diosis of San Jose but now has its own non-profit membership. The family center is kept alive with private grants and fundraisers. All the while, the family center has been comprised of the combination of eight churches: New Hope Community, First Baptist, Gilroy Presbyterian, Gilroy United Methodist, Good Shepherd Lutheran, St. Mary Catholic, St. Stephan’s Episcopal and South Valley Community.
“We all believe in the same God, and we all work hard to get his work done,” Merriman said. “It blends all ages, it blends all races, it blends all beliefs into one common goal.”
As St. Joseph’s site at St. Mary Catholic Church grows each year, the number of people in need have grown as well.
“It’s my hope and prayer that we can continue to do this even with the higher numbers.”
To help serve the need, several volunteers, most of them retired, work near full-time to help give grociery supplements consiting of items like bread, milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables and more to anywhere from 35 to 70 families a day.
“They make the world move for us,” Merriman said. “These are all retired people who come and work hard at Saint Joseph’s from the good of their hearts. They do this with great energy on a daily basis.”
For families to qualify for help from St. Joseph’s, they must visit the site and talk to a case worker, who will assess their situation. If they qualify, they get set up and they can come for food every 16 days. But the program is only meant to be a supplement for the families, not their only source of food.
“This program was never created for that,” Merriman said. “We are able to give them the basics.”
Most of the people receiving help from the organization are families where someone has been laid off and can’t find work or where income is so low, they simply can’t make ends meet.
“We help people who really need help,” she said.
Two years ago, St. Joseph’s paired with the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara to begin a program to help provide housing for the homeless during the winter months. The Ochoa Winter Center houses up to 76 families in need during the cold rainy season.
St. Joseph’s began taking applications from families Tuesday and the Ochoa Winter Center will house families from Dec. 2 until Feb 28. Many of the families come in with little more than what they have on them. Some have been living out of their automobiles.
“People usually move in with whatever they have in their car,” said Lili Armenta, program manager for Ochoa.
As the families move in, they will need many items, including basics like kitchen utensils, pots and pans and bedding.
“Certainly, there will be needs,” Merriman said. “It doesn’t have to be new, it just has to be clean.”
Merriman said Ochoa is meant as a place for families to get their finances in order and, hopefully, find a way to afford permanent housing by the end of their stay. Last year, 51 families were able to transition into new housing.
“It will be a safe haven for homeless families,” Merriman said. “It’s an opportunity for them to get back on their feet again and have a safe, warm place for the winter.”
Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s continues to feed families every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evening, and volunteers and workers like Merriman get up with the sun and try to make a difference for the needy of South County.
“I’ve never had a job where I want to work so hard,” she said.
Donations for St. Joseph’s programs can be brought to the office at 7950 Church St.
