Fuller belies, healthier families and stable homes for the
homeless could be a few side effects of the $90,000 St. Joseph’s
Family Center recently received in local grants.
Fuller belies, healthier families and stable homes for the homeless could be a few side effects of the $90,000 St. Joseph’s Family Center recently received in local grants.
St. Joseph’s was awarded an unrestricted, $25,000 “Challenge Grant” from the Sobrato Family Foundation that can be renewed next year if the center manages to come up with a community match.
“We’re hoping to stimulate people to be a little more generous,” said David Cox, executive director of St. Joseph’s. “We think we can do it.
“This funding’s not just a beautiful gift, but it’s unrestricted,” he emphasized.
Unrestricted funds mean that the center can put the money toward the programs that need it the most. When funds are restricted, organizations have to use the money for specific programs and are sometimes steered outside their area of expertise, Cox said.
The money can support various programs from the food pantry to kick starting a new permanent housing program. The number of people seeking assistance at the food pantry is up about 24 percent, Cox said. He and his employees have had to make some tough decisions about the quality of their services. While they want to serve every family, he worries about spreading the center’s resources too thin. For instance, the center isn’t able to provide families with as much protein or milk as he would like, he said.
“The pantry is an area of great need,” he said. “One emergency situation can put these families in a pickle.”
With skyrocketing gas and food prices, more people are struggling to put a roof over their heads and food on their tables, he said. St. Joseph’s helps more than 5,000 families do this annually.
High gas prices that have more than doubled since St. Joseph’s first began it’s Senior Shuttle program also cut into the budget, Cox said. The money can also be used to fuel this program.
A third program that could get a boost from the grant is a permanent housing plan that St. Joseph’s is working on putting in place in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The program will cost about $300,000, about 80 percent of which will come from HUD, and put a permanent roof over eight to 10 of Gilroy’s homeless. The funds will fall into place soon, Cox hopes. Meanwhile, the center is still looking for landlords willing to rent rooms to previously homeless tenants.
St. Joseph’s also received a $65,000 grant from the Valley Foundation, in partnership with Saint Louise Regional Hospital, to jump start a health and nutrition initiative that will identify 15 to 20 families who are at risk for diabetes and provide them with education, healthy food supplements and testing supplies.
One of the first things that families sacrifice when money is scarce is food. Three out of 10 people have trouble putting adequate food on the table, Cox said. Families with tight pocketbooks are eating the same things and have little variety in their diet.
“We’re really trying to reach these folks,” Cox said of the families targeted by the program.
