Community Corner

Los Gatos Advocates For Less Fortunate Recognized

In honor of National Volunteer Week, West Valley Community Services treated its volunteers to dinner at Quinlan Community Center in Cupertino.

West Valley Community Services staff turned the tables this week and did something nice for their volunteers, who donate many hours and energy to the nonprofit whose mission is to providing direct assistance and referral services to the west valley communities of Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Cupertino, Saratoga, West San Jose and the unincorporated mountain regions.

The Cupertino-based nonprofit, founded in 1973, offers basic assistance, family support services and housing services including information and referrals, food pantry, clothing, rotating shelter, transitional housing, affordable housing, financial assistance, family support and case management services.

On Wednesday evening, the volunteers who make it all happen were honored with a dinner at Quinlan Community Center in Cupertino during National Volunteer Week.

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Every morning vans loaded with donated food roll up to WVCS’s driveway on Vista Drive. The food doesn’t magically sort and shelf itself in the food pantry; it takes manpower to do that.

And for the organization, that manpower comes from 150 volunteers on a weekly basis—700 volunteers on an annual basis—and more than 22,000 volunteer hours annually to keep its multiple programs running.

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Local grocery store vans from Safeway, and Trader Joe’s drop off food in the mornings and volunteers such as Judy Halchin, a Cupertino resident who works two shifts a week, sort and stock the shelves so when clients shop in the pantry it’s neat and organized.

“Sometimes we just get a big box with all kinds of produce in it—peppers, potatoes, apples—it’s all mixed up,” Halchin says.

Many longtime volunteers and board members are hooked on the agency's work. Board president George Tyson began working at WVCS after his daughter spent four years working there once a week while she was in high school.

“For the first year I was ‘Natalie’s Dad,’ ” he says, referring to Natalie’s longevity at the nonprofit.

Natalie needed something to do to keep herself occupied so he suggested she try volunteering at WVCS. She loved it, and still donates time as a volunteer elsewhere while attending college.

Volunteering at WVCS is more than just a way to keep busy, he says. For Natalie, and others like her, the programs at WVCS expose those who don’t have to worry about the basic needs such as food and shelter to those who don’t enjoy that security, Tyson says.

“It gives them a whole different perspective,” says Steve Spitts, WVCS board treasurer and volunteer coordinator of affiliated House of Hope in Los Gatos.

Volunteers at the appreciation night were treated to dinner catered by Rio Adobe of Cupertino.


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