Holiday Food Baskets

Organization: Friends in Sonoma Helping (F.I.S.H.)

To expand food choices for the holidays by increasing the amount of FISH's holiday basket gift certificate by $60 for 550 families.

Amount: $33,000, 9/3/2021

Recovery Grants Summer 2021

Organization: Sonoma Overnight Support

To support the continued prepared meal outreach collaboration with Vintage House, the funds will support SOS’s absorption of the meal preparation and deliveries to homebound seniors in the Springs, who were formerly serviced by Vintage House.

Amount: $20,000, 8/20/21

Neighbor to Neighbor: Essential Porch Deliveries and Food Distribution

Organization: Food for All/Comida Para Todos

Provide support for eight months, Nov - June, to continue bi-lingual organizing and distribution of essential items, food, information and outreach in the Springs. Expansion of services to reach more people.

Amount: $40,000, 10/16/20

Amount: $120,000, 2/12/21

Amount: $7,000, 11/10/21 - to hire a consultant to provide capacity building and organizational development consulting services for a new Sonoma Valley Collective

Amount: $80,000, 2/2/22 - to provide emergency food deliveries to COVID impacted families in the Springs neighborhoods through the Omicron surge

Update: Demand for food and essential items by home-bound households has grown and the online signups fill quickly. During the COVID-19 spike, they were getting emergency calls between distributions from COVID-19 positive families needing to isolate and without 14 days of food and supplies, so they have responded and set up an ’emergency box’ program. With the rapidly increasing spread of the virus in the community, they have split volunteer groups into smaller units to maintain service and decrease possible spread, even though they work outside. Several indoor sites for rain days have been identified.  They are getting referrals from the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, ISO Care and the other LA CURA program partners. What began as a simple neighbor-to-neighbor assistance program has vastly grown into a full blown distribution and emergency response operation.

The organization continues to evolve and grow to meet the demand for free home food deliveries, alternating weekly between 110-120 essential item boxes and REFB boxes; emergency COVID-19 positive food boxes; and sharing the latest COVID-19 information about testing and vaccination education. In March 2021 Food for All celebrated their 1-year service anniversary, having provided food and assistance to over 4,000 individuals in over 900 unique families with the help of 50 volunteers and in partnership with over 20 local organizations. The organization’s services have also expanded in 2021 to include an outreach program for day laborers, mental health support seminars in Spanish for families this spring and a community forum scheduled for late spring/early summer.

Fortifying Meal Production for the Homeless and Food Insecure

Organization:  Sonoma Overnight Support (SOS)

SOS purchased refrigeration units and large stainless-steel worktables to strengthen kitchen capacity at the Springs Hall to handle increased need for breakfasts and lunches for the homeless, the food-deprived, the working poor, and those on a fixed income. Demand has more than doubled from a year ago to over 220 meals a day.

Amount: $13,000, 10/30/20

Update: Meals have leveled off at about 250/day, up 41% since August. Refrigerator was installed in mid December, 2020. Served 210 meals for the Secret Santa Holiday event. Conducting a survey in collaboration with Vintage House to assess demand for prepared meal deliveries to the home-bound elderly in the Springs, with the intent to beginning deliveries in January 2021.

Enhancing Elder Care Support and Collaborative Meal Planning 

Organization: Vintage House

The grant made it possible to hire a part-time chef, enabling the organization to increase the total number of meals each week by 50% from 300 to 450 and increase the volume of delivered meals to 100 senior households per week. It also enabled initial collaboration planning to share resources and expand outreach with other organizations doing similar meal preparation work in response to COVID.

Amount: $50,000, 10/16/20

Update: Two chefs have been hired and have stabilized and expanded the meal production, which is now up at target: 400 meals each week to meet demand - 200 picked up curbside and 200 delivered. A prepared meal delivery service to the Latinx community’s elders launched in January, based on survey feedback from local Latinx elders (stared at about 20 per week). Once the new meal delivery service to Latinx elders is stabilized, meal delivery to the broader Latinx community may be piloted in collaboration with SOS. The meal delivery is the beginning of VH’s outreach to the Latinx senior community, hoping to build trust and become a resource for them.