CONTACT:
Rebecca Salner, Media Relations Officer
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
650.450.5525 or rsalner@siliconvalleycf.org

Santa Clara County Nonprofits to Receive $500,000 in Grants for Food and Shelter

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Twenty three nonprofit organizations will receive a total of $500,000 in grants from Silicon Valley Community Foundation to provide food and shelter to Santa Clara County residents who need help in the midst of one of the region’s most severe economic recessions.

As the county’s unemployment rate has risen, more people than ever before are turning to food pantries and temporary shelters and safety net providers are struggling to cope with the increased demands.

St. Joseph’s Family Center in Gilroy, which received a $30,000 grant, reported that they saw a 33 percent increase in the number of people seeking help from the food pantry in the first four months of this year compared to last year. This winter, the center predicts, an additional 3,100 people in southern Santa Clara County will need help.

Sunnyvale Community Services has had record numbers of people seeking help with food every month for the past eight months. But the increased need has come at a time when donations of food have decreased, a trend the organization hasn’t seen in 20 years. SCS received a $30,000 grant to buy bulk food and provide rental assistance to low-income residents.

“Every nonprofit organization in Santa Clara County that provides food and shelter has experienced dramatic increases in demand for services,’’ said Emmett D. Carson, CEO and president of the community foundation. “Unfortunately, these organizations are being asked to do more at a time when individual giving is down and government money is being reduced because of severe budget constraints.”

The grants are part of a larger effort that the community foundation began last year to increase food and shelter services during the recession. In December 2008, the community foundation awarded $3 million to 47 food and shelter providers in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Last month, the community foundation and San Mateo County announced that they would jointly distribute $1 million as part of a unique public-private partnership to help residents weather the ongoing recession. Of that amount, $766,000 went to organizations that provide food and shelter to San Mateo County residents. The remaining $234,000 was awarded from San Mateo County’s Economic Urgency Assistance Program to five organizations providing health and dental care, employment counseling and services to domestic violence victims.

About Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation® is a catalyst and leader for innovative solutions to our region’s most challenging problems. Serving all of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, the community foundation has $1.5 billion in assets under management and 1,500 philanthropic funds. The community foundation provides grants through donor advised and corporate funds in addition to its own Community Endowment Fund. In addition, the community foundation serves as a regional center for philanthropy, providing donors simple and effective ways to give locally and around the world. Silicon Valley Community Foundation launched in January 2007 following the landmark merger of Community Foundation Silicon Valley and Peninsula Community Foundation and is now one of the largest community foundations in the nation. Find out more at www.siliconvalleycf.org.