HOLLISTER
Thanks to the generosity of San Benito County residents, it looks like even the community’s neediest residents will be able to enjoy Christmas and look forward to the new year.
Local nonprofits are reporting that individual donations this year have been as good or better than in past years. Community Pantry has received about $5,000 more in donations this year than last, and both Emmaus house and the local homeless shelter have received many food and gift donations from local residents.
“As far as donations go, we’ve been doing great,” said Dale Yarmuth, executive director of Emmaus House. “The community has really been coming through for us.”
For many local charities, the holiday season – from November through Jan. 1 – is a key fundraising time. Mary Anne Hughes, executive director of Community Pantry, said the organization typically receives around half of the donations made over the course of the year in the November and December months.
This year, the nonprofit that provides food and meals to low-income San Benito County residents has collected just over $35,500 from local donors during this quarter, up from around $3,000 last year.
“We have gotten above what we expected in donations from the community. We’re very excited about that,” Hughes said.
The organization has yet to count its cans from the food drive, which ends at the end of the year, but Hughes said she’s been “hearing a lot of buzz” and is confident that they will have at least as many donations this year as in previous years.
The additional donations are needed, Hughes said, because the number of people served by Community Pantry has increased as well. This November, the group served 1,180 families, 366 more than in 2006.
“Every month is higher than the month before,” Hughes said. “We’ve had people come in recently who have just been laid off after 25 years of working steadily.”
Hughes said that she thinks the poor economy is actually one of the reasons people have been particularly generous this year.
“I think people are hearing stories because the economy is doing bad,” she said. “I think some people are thinking, rather than buy gifts for people that don’t need anything – why do that when there are people that really need the help?”
Other local nonprofits are reporting a generosity in donations as well.
Both Emmaus House and San Benito County’s Homeless Shelter have an abundance of clothing donations.
Cindy Parr, manager of the homeless shelter, spent Friday organizing and folding the many clothing donations.
“The donations have been coming in continually,” she said.
Parr said the shelter had also received bags of toiletries from Sunnyslope School and monetary donations had been coming, too. Earlier this year, the shelter was short $20,000 in funds and was at risk of closing down early in February. Fortunately, after people heard about the shortage of funds, the money started coming in.
“The community really came through for us,” she said.
At Emmaus House as well, because of the various food and clothing drives at local schools, the women and children’s shelter has received enough items to provide Christmas to the children and to clothe the women.
Tonight, Santa Claus will visit the shelter to bring both current and past residents gifts and holiday cheer.
Still, despite generous donors, many local nonprofits are short on grants and large-scale funding. Yarmuth said Emmaus House was currently about $100,000 short to run the operation next year. And oftentimes, after an abundance of donations during the holidays, the funds runs out mid-year.
“We have to remind people that this goes on all year,” Hughes said.
