Love Is a Thread In Our Safety Net

Header photo: Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes board members Mary Mckenna, Kristen Marinovic, Veronica Schultz, and Board President Joan Bosworth showed the Community Foundation board and staff their warm hospitality.

Originally published in the Sentinel on 11/23.

Monday through Friday, year-round at noon, up to 150 people—depending on the season—gather in the bright pink pavilion behind Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes in Watsonville where warm nutritious meals are lovingly served by volunteers to farmworkers, elderly and disabled neighbors, and people experiencing homelessness. Recently, the Board and staff team of the Community Foundation got to be recipients of their lunch and kindness. An added bonus: it was enchilada day, and PV Loaves and Fishes make the best enchiladas.

As Loaves and Fishes volunteer board members served our group, we got a glimpse of the dignity and love their clients receive every day. It may have been the perfect spice of the chili, or my eyes filling with tears, but in that moment, I felt deep gratitude for our community coming together to make sure everyone is cared for.

These are difficult times. Federal policy shifts and funding cuts are deepening. The aftershocks of the shutdown will continue to affect vital programs. The nonprofits that make up our local safety net—the food pantries, clinics, shelters, and resource centers that catch people when they fall—are stretched thinner than ever.

The initial rollout of H.R.1, paired with the shutdown, has exposed gaps in access to food and healthcare—and there’s more uncertainty ahead. Leaders across the county are making plans to safeguard critical services, anticipating state and federal cuts, and making hard decisions about what will be lost or cut.

When I first became CEO of the Community Foundation eight years ago, I looked up the definition of “philanthropy.” The first thing I found was “love of humanity.” That simple phrase captures what keeps Santa Cruz County strong—through pandemics, fires, floods, and instability. Amid the uncertainty, one truth stands out: our safety net holds because of love—for this place, its people, and the relationships that tie us together.

That love is what I felt at PV Loaves and Fishes. It’s what I witness every day in the work of our nonprofit partners. And it’s what inspires our community’s generosity time and again.

Love for humanity has propelled our work at the Community Foundation for more than forty years. It grounds us in meeting today’s needs while never losing sight of tomorrow. Our permanent endowment works hand in hand with timely resources like the Greatest Needs Fund, established in 2021, to give people a simple, powerful way to meet urgent needs as they emerge—and it works.

The Greatest Needs Fund is collective giving at its best. Gifts of all sizes—from community members across every walk of life—are granted quickly and effectively, allowing nonprofits to adapt, respond, and keep staff in place when services are needed most.

To support our safety net, the Greatest Needs Fund has granted $500,000 to organizations responding to critical challenges:

• Second Harvest Food Bank: from the moment USDA trucks turned around in the spring to emergency food for its network during the government shutdown.
• Community Bridges, Community Action Board, and Catholic Charities, supporting families with food, shelter, and financial assistance amidst immigration concerns.
• Dientes Community Dental Care, Salud Para la Gente, and Santa Cruz Community Health, planning for new restrictions in Medicaid eligibility and making plans to ensure access to healthcare
• Watsonville Law Center, offering legal aid and outreach to families navigating new policies.

Santa Cruz County gains tremendous momentum when neighbors help neighbors. In addition to grants from the Greatest Needs Fund, this year generous community members working with the Community Foundation have given $30 million to support nonprofits.

Local giving and local action matter. Philanthropy can’t replace government funding—but it can soften the blow, buy time, and keep critical lifelines intact.

As we enter the holiday season, I recognize the worry, the tightening purse strings, and cuts in services ahead. But I also see the love—in the smiles exchanged over enchiladas, the outpouring of kindness as we meet this moment, and the generosity that drives this community to protect each other now and in the future.