Photograph by George Sakkestad
Six-year volunteer Vincent LoFranco helps 94-year-old Elsie Trewin with the bag of groceries she recieves every week from Calvary Church's Food Bank.
By Clarence Cromwell
Dozens of low-income senior citizens lined up at Calvary Church last Friday morning to receive grocery sacks containing wax beans, pasta sauce, Mountain Dew, crackers, potatoes and oranges.
They are among 75 Los Gatos seniors who receive bags of groceries each Friday from Operation Brown Bag, operated by Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
They'll continue to pick up the sacks, now that the Town Council has accepted a recommendation to award the program $3,200 from its $190,000 share of federal Community Development Block Grant money. The council on April 1 accepted the recommendation of the Community Services Commission to approve nine applications, including the one from Second Harvest.
Through Operation Brown Bag, the food bank delivers a weekly sack of groceries and pamphlets about nutrition and consumer issues to low-income senior citizens. Businesses donate the food, and town funds pay for transporting and storing it.
Program managers estimate they'll hand out 3,900 bags of groceries this year. The bags contain donated food, usually fruit, vegetables, canned goods and bread. Recipients pay $10 a year.
Second Harvest operates the program at 67 sites in Santa Clara County, two of them in Los Gatos. The countywide program costs $1.3 million a year, according to Second Harvest Communications Manager Steve Mangold.
Mangold said the food is important to the seniors, whose average income is about $621 a month. He recalled one member of the program who came to Second Harvest because she didn't want to choose between buying food and a prescription medication she needed.
In addition to Operation Brown Bag, six other nonprofits requested block-grant funds from the town. The town also made five requests itself. The 12 proposals totaled $239,665. That's $49,665 more than the town expects to receive from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Two agencies applying for the first time this year, Cupertino Community Services--for a rental assistance program in Los Gatos--and Eastfield Ming Quong, were not recommended. A proposal by Emergency Housing Consortium wasn't recommended because the commission believed it could be funded by the town's Housing Conservation Program, which was recommended.
In the public services category, the council approved funds for three groups in addition to Second Harvest, but didn't award any of them as much as the groups had requested.
For Catholic Charities, the commission suggested $7,100 to provide ombudsman services to seniors. The group asked for $8,800.
Volunteer ombudsmen investigate abuse and exploitation complaints against skilled nursing facilities or private nurses. Seniors at 16 care facilities in Los Gatos would be eligible to use the service.
Live Oak Adult Services asked for $21,000 and the commission recommended $15,300. The program lets frail seniors meet for social events, meals and support-group counseling. It serves about 20 seniors a day, five days a week.
The commission penciled in $10,000 for the San Jose State University Foundation, for a program that provides in-home nursing and blood pressure monitoring to low-income seniors. The foundation had asked for $22,615.
In the housing category, the council accepted recommendations to allocate $154,400, all of it to projects run by the town.
Councilmembers approved three grants, totaling $98,250, to the town housing conservation program. The program loans the money to low-income and moderate-income home buyers; it provides low-interest loans for home repairs and earthquake or accessibility modifications; and it pays a housing specialist to help landowners develop and design property improvements, estimate their costs and negotiate construction contracts.
For town improvements required by the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, $41,150 was recommended. The funds would make the Civic Center more accessible to disabled residents and place wheelchair ramps at the curbs of crosswalks around town.
Finally, $15,000 of the funding was earmarked for administration of the Community Development Block Grants at Town Hall.
Amounts approved must be allocated when the Town Council formulates the 1996-97 budget in May. Because of a shortage of low-income homebuyers asking for town assistance, the Town Council decided to review amounts allocated for housing programs when it considers the budget.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development hands out block grants yearly, under the 1974 Housing and Community Development Act. Municipalities of less than 50,000 residents, including Los Gatos, receive funding through their counties. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors must approve final allocations of block grants, to be set in May during the town's budget process.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, April 10, 1996.
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