Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s Food and Shelter Summit
T
he leaders of more than 50 nonprofit organizations at Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s Food and Shelter
Summit gathered to discuss the unprecedented crisis facing safety net providers in San Mateo and Santa Clara
counties and to explore interest in public policy solutions.
"We talk about how Wall Street needs help and Main Street needs help, but it is now increasingly those folks
on Main Street who are ending up in your shops as unemployment rises," said
Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D., CEO and
president of the community foundation.
"It’s our community’s collective responsibility to do something about it," he told an audience of more than
100 nonprofit executives, board members, government representatives and other funders at the summit.
Carson also announced that the community foundation has received more than $1 million in donations to its Safety
Net campaign. The foundation in October pledged a dollar-for-dollar match of all donations up to $1 million made
by Dec. 31. That goal has now been reached and the community foundation will be able to provide at least
$3 million to food and shelter providers.
We did it!
Thank you to all the donors who contributed to our successful Safety Net challenge. With your help,
Silicon Valley Community Foundation has been able to award $3 million in grants to safety net organizations.
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Those providers are experiencing dramatic spikes in demand for their services in the current economic downturn.
"What this amounts to is a perfect economic storm not only for the working poor, but increasingly for the middle
class," said Poncho Guevara, executive director of Sacred Heart Community Service,
whose agency has seen "double-digit"
increases in need month over month.
During the summit, participants discussed a range of possible solutions and opportunities including:
- Finding ways for both counties to work together, building on existing coalitions to cut poverty
- Giving voice to those who receive services and helping to remove any stigma associated with seeking food or shelter assistance
- Involving interfaith organizations in future efforts
- Exploring policy solutions
"This is a start," said Carson. "We have a common interest. Our commitment to you is that we’re not done yet.
What we do, we have to do collectively."
Download the Food and Shelter Summit Agenda.
The community foundation will continue to accept donations to "
Strengthen the Safety Net." More information
about the fund is available on our website.
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