Mr. and Ms. O are a young couple with two children who came to Catholic Charities/Centro San Jose looking for emergency food. Ms. O was struggling with paying her rent and putting food on her table. Her family was unable to access SNAP (formerly Food Stamps) because of their inability to establish a permanent address. Catholic Charities/Centro San Jose provided Ms. O with emergency food for her family.  We also provided her with referrals to Legal Aid as well as Catholic Charities/Centro San Jose’s clothing closet since the seasons are changing and the children have no spring clothes.

Ms. O was informed about our Pre-School Play Yard for parents with preschool age children, so she decided to register for the workshop. She attended every session with her children and was so impressed with the workshop that she and her husband signed up for Catholic Charities/Centro San Jose’s Circle of Security workshops, an attachment based series for parents of young children.  Ms. O and her husband often visit to give us an update on their progress and always express their gratitude for the services we helped them with.

On their most recent visit we informed them that we have received some funding from Neighbor to Neighbor Lifeline and will be able to enroll additional families in Food Pantry as well as increase the frequency of our food distribution. They were so excited and grateful because we were previously unable to enroll them in our regular food pantry. With the support of Neighbor to Neighbor Lifeline, Mr. and Ms. O will be able to come to Centro San Jose on a weekly basis and pick out food for their two small children. The Neighbor to Neighbor Lifeline program is also allowing Centro San Jose to address one of our families’ largest barriers; access to fresh, affordable produce. The O Family was extremely excited and grateful for all of our services to date, but said this will really help them by allowing them to focus on other bills. Neighbor to Neighbor Lifeline helps so many families in different ways. No amount is too small and every family is grateful for having somewhere to turn during their time of need.