By Khalida Sarwari
In the middle of one of the most expensive suburbs in California, surrounded by lush green lawns amid sun-drenched hills, many wouldn’t know that about 300 West Valley College students leave their campus’ clean and spacious hallways for their car or to the streets where they live. The lucky ones have a friend’s couch to crash on.
These students see some relief on Wednesday mornings when a 38-foot white RV rolls onto campus. The RV delivers food and groceries, as well as necessities and supportive services, to those who need them.
The RV is a big feature of a mobile food pantry program run by West Valley Community Services, a Cupertino-based nonprofit that provides services to seniors, low-income and homeless people in Los Gatos, Cupertino, Monte Sereno, Saratoga and west San Jose. Stacked with just about anything that an individual who is struggling to get by could possibly need, the RV sets out to a handful of locations on a weekly or biweekly basis to deliver fruits, vegetables, canned and dried goods and toiletries. There is also a case manager aboard with knowledge about referral services and financial assistance.
It makes its weekly stops in parking lot 3 of West Valley at the request of the college’s president Brad Davis, according to Alec Atienza, who serves as a coordinator for the mobile pantry program.
“For West Valley College, when we started, they said they had somewhere around 300 students that were homeless,” he said. “That could mean anything from couch surfing, living in their cars or on the streets. It surprised me, too.”
Added Malia O’Brien, a case manager for the program, “A lot of people don’t think that anyone in their 20s, that students, need those services or are looking for those resources, but the more students have access to resources or food, it helps them with their education. That’s definitely important.”
And it’s not just students: West Valley Community Services estimates that at least 22,000 folks in its service area alone live below the federal poverty line. Of that number, they’re able to help only a little more than a third annually.
“There’s still a big need out there,” said Atienza. “There’s a lot of displacement, even in Saratoga. That’s one of our busiest sites.”
The mobile food pantry program officially launched last year with financial backing from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. The board agreed to fund the program, which is estimated to cost about $158,000 annually, for its first three years. West Valley Community Services is using that money toward staffing as well as maintenance and operation of the vehicle. The RV was donated by Second Harvest Food Bank, which used the vehicle for its food stamp drives.
The nonprofit works in partnership with Community Services Agency, a social services agency that serves residents in Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. The mobile food pantry program was modeled after similar programs in the Midwest as well as local ones such as Meals on Wheels, said Atienza.
“Those provide hot meals to people,” he said. “They go to homeless encampments; we kind of wanted to go for things that you can get on the fly that are more grocery items. We try to give them a little more … a weekly or a monthly provision as opposed to one meal.”
While only students who live in West Valley Community Service’s service area are eligible for the full range of services the mobile food pantry provides, all students can pick up a hot meal or speak to a case manager about resources and other organizations that may be able to help them.
For more information, visit wvcommunityservices.org/mobile.
Link:
Mobile food pantry program targets West Valley College’s homeless
