Hope’s Corner 2023 Annual Report
Hope’s Corner 2023 Program Report
Hope’s Corner had the largest year of growth since beginning with Saturday breakfasts in 2011. In total, 1,762 individuals visited Hope’s Corner in 2023 and enjoyed 43,528 meals. By year end, Hope’s Corner provided a cumulative 216,559 meals since the meal program began. In addition, 224 individuals enjoyed 2,384 showers and 118 individuals had 782 loads of laundry washed and dried. Beyond the core services, Hope’s Corner offered other programs and services in 2023 including haircuts, holiday programs, vaccines, bicycle repairs, and much more.
We could not do this without the support of our community. An amazing 978 volunteers spent over 13,000 hours helping us make the program work. Individual donors generously provided over 60% of the funds we needed to operate the program. Foundations, corporate sponsors, grants and other organizations provided the remaining funds needed for services in 2023.
Please enjoy the following program report detailing the programs, services, donors, volunteers
2023 Meal Program
Hope’s Corner served 43,528 meals in 2023 reaching a total 216,559 meals served since Hope’s Corner served the first meal in 2011. Throughout 2023, volunteers cooked fresh, hot meals every Saturday and Wednesday morning and beginning in August, Monday morning meal service was added to the meal program. On Saturdays, the meal program provides a hot meal with 4-5 hot items, which include protein, eggs, potatoes/rice, and fresh hot vegetables. The guests enjoyed a return to sit-down dining on Saturday mornings in September 2023. Guests can now enjoy a buffet of hot and cold items to select from and sit down in the dining area to enjoy their breakfast and coffee and juice with friends. In addition to the buffet breakfast on Saturday morning, guests are offered one to-go box of food and a to-go sack lunch to take with them when they leave. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the hot meal and to-go sack lunch continue to be packaged in a to-go format and includes 1-2 hot items. The to-go sack lunch includes foods such as green salad, fresh fruit, cheese, protein bars, fruit cups, crackers, nut butters, canned meat, cereals, nuts, milk or juice. In addition, a coffee, juice and milk station is available for guests to select up to 2 beverages to enjoy with their meal.
Saturday remained the busiest meal service day at Hope’s Corner, with just over 50% of the 34,103 onsite meals served in 2023 being enjoyed on Saturday mornings. Hope’s Corner expanded the meal program in August 2023, when the Monday morning coffee and snack program was converted to a full hot-meal program with to-go sack lunch starting on August 7 th . The new program served 110 meals on the first Monday, and by year-end meal average was nearly 200 meals each Monday. The Wednesday meal service also continued to grow in popularity throughout 2023. The average Wednesday meal count was 200 in early 2023 and had reached 240 by the end of the year.
Throughout 2023, Hope’s Corner continued delivering meals to the MOVE Mountain View Safe Parking program and the Day Worker Center of Mountain View. In total, 6,751 hot meals were provided to Safe Parking and 2,674 hot meals were provided to the Day Workers program in 2023. Meal support for the Safe Parking program is provided on Wednesdays and Saturdays each week. Hope’s Corner prepared an average of 50 meals on Wednesdays and 80 meals on Saturdays for this program. On Wednesdays, volunteers pick up the meals and to-go sack lunches and deliver the food to the Safe Parking locations. On Saturdays, the meals, bag lunch and additional groceries, milk, fruit and other items are loaded into the Hope’s Corner van and are driven to the three parking lots and, if supplies allow, additional neighborhood areas where RV dwellers frequently park. Hope’s Corner continued to provide 50 meals to the Day Worker Center of Mountain View every Saturday. This includes hot protein, carbohydrate source and vegetables plus fresh green salad for 50 people.
Meal Program Guest Demographics
In total, 1,762 individuals came to Hope’s Corner for a hot meal in 2023, a small increase from the 1,728 we saw in 2022. The demographic information is collected for onsite meal program participants only; we do not collect demographic information about guests who receive meals offsite at the Safe Park and Day Worker Center.
Most of the individuals who come to Hope’s Corner to enjoy a meal report that they reside in Mountain View. The percentage of guests who call Mountain View home in 2023 increased from 62% in 2022.
Housing status reported by guests showed 62% of the guests have permanent shelter, which is down slightly from 63% in 2022. Guests who report they live outdoors totaled 17%, a notable increase from 12% living outdoors in 2022. The remaining guests, 11%, report they live in a vehicle or RV, down from 16% in 2022, and 10% are in a temporary shelter (9% in 2022).
Youth (individuals aged 17 and under) represented 9% of the guests who received a meal in 2023, and seniors (adults age 60 and over) totaled 48% of meal participants. Age and gender demographics were consistent with 2022 data.
2023 SHOWER AND LAUNDRY PROGRAM
The shower and laundry program is available to any unhoused individual in need. Program participants are offered toiletries, like shampoo, soap, razor, shaving cream, dental supplies, lotions, etc. and are given a towel. In addition, participants are offered new underwear, socks, and a t-shirt each time they come to the program. We also maintain an emergency clothing closet with shoes, pants, shirts, and jackets for those who do not have enough or proper clothing. In August 2023, to complement the meal program expansion, the Monday shower and laundry program hours were expanded to match Wednesdays. The showers and laundry are now available Mondays and Wednesdays 8:30am-12pm and Saturdays 8:30am-2:15pm.
The shower program was offered 152 days in 2023, an increase from the 122 days in 2022 given our expansion to offer the program on Mondays beginning in mid-2022. In total, 2,384 showers were enjoyed by 224 unique individuals in 2023, an increase from 1,928 showers for 200 individuals in 2022. (These statistics do not include the use of the showers by the occupants of the Cold Weather Shelter during the months of December to April.)
A majority of the 2023 shower participants were adult males aged 18-59 who accounted for 59% of the showers in 2023. Female guests aged 18-59 accounted for 19% of the shower participants and senior males (age 60+) accounted for 13% of the program participants. We served 18 Senior Females in 2023 who accounted for 9% of the showers. Although the shower program is available to youth, we did not have anyone under 18 utilize the shower program in 2023. The demographics of shower participants was not significantly changed from 2022 which was 55% adult male, 20% adult female, 15% senior male and 9% senior female.
The laundry program started in Q4 2019 but closed for much of 2020 due to Covid-19. The program was re-opened in mid-2021. The laundry program was offered 122 days in 2022 and 594 loads of laundry were washed for 97 individuals. With the laundry program expanded to Mondays, the service was offered 152 days in 2023; 782 loads of laundry were washed for 118 individuals.
The 2023 laundry program participants included 61 adult males, 31 adult females, 13 males over age 60 and 13 females over age 60. The laundry program is offered to unhoused individuals who are allowed one load of laundry per program day.
More than Meals & Showers
Hope’s Corner continues to grow and expand services whenever the opportunity is available. Volunteers and local organizations continued their amazing support for Hope’s Corner in 2023 and provided guests with some amazing support and services. The guests were offered many free goods and services in 2023 including flu shots, health services, Covid tests, haircuts, gift cards, holiday toys, hygiene supplies (including masks and hand sanitizer) and clothing.
Personal Electronics Charging Station
Finding a secure location to charge a laptop, cell phone or other rechargeable equipment is difficult when you are unhoused. Building a charging station for personal devices and donating it to Hope’s Corner earned one Boy Scout from Troop 33 in Los Altos his Eagle Award and made a great addition to the services offered at Hope’s Corner. The charging station offers 5 separate, locking compartments, each with a standard outlet and USB charging ports so guests can charge their equipment knowing their electronics are safe. The charging station was utilized by over 50 guests throughout 2023.
Happy Holidays
The holiday program committee began planning and preparation in October 2023 to ensure a successful holiday program. Participants pre-register for the event at the end of November and receive an appointment time to ‘shop’ for holiday gifts for their family on the day of the event. Our amazing volunteers operated a toy drive from December 1st-15th, reaching out to local companies, schools, organizations, fire department, City of Mountain View, and individuals. Their efforts netted over 2,000 toys for the program.
The 2023 holiday program was held on Sunday December 17 th . We served 240 families and 673 children in 2023. Parents were able to select new, unwrapped toys for their children. Children aged 0-4 received two toys and diapers. Children aged 5-12 received three toys. Children aged 13-18 received two toys and a gift card. Each family also received a $25 grocery gift card to help them with a holiday meal.
Parents were also able to receive a bag of candy, a bag of groceries, books, stocking stuffers, and stuffed animal or soft item (hat, blanket, gloves, socks, etc.) for their child(ren). In addition, we offered a gift wrapping station in 2023, so parents could wrap their children’s gifts in beautiful holiday wrappings and bows.
The holiday program was made possible by 93 volunteers who worked 127 shifts and donated over 800 hours to make the holiday program a success.
Program participant demographics collected with registration show the following:
94% report they are housed, 3% live in a vehicle or RV, 3% live in a temporary shelter
83% report they live in Mountain View, 9% Sunnyvale, 7% San Jose, 1% other
87% report they are Very Low Income; 13% reported they are Low Income
Haircuts
Through a generous donation of time and materials from Seeds of Hope Silicon Valley, six free haircut events were offered at Hope’s Corner in 2023; February, April, June, August, October and December. At each event, three to four stylists pampered guests with a personal haircut and fun conversation. In total, 203 free haircuts were enjoyed at Hope’s Corner in 2023.
Health
During 2023, Hope’s Corner passed out free covid home tests, face masks and hand sanitizer to ensure guests had supplies to stay healthy. In October 2023, we coordinated a free, on-site immunization clinic in cooperation with County of Santa Clara Public Health Department’s Mobile Response Team. The immunization clinic provided free flu shots for Hope’s Corner guests. Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing also kept us well stocked with emergency blankets, sleeping bags, hand warmers, rain ponchos and tarps to help guests stay warm and dry.
Bicycle Program
Hope’s Corner partners with Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange to keep our guests moving. The program provided 55 free bicycles to our guests in 2023, which includes a lock and lights for safety. The Bicycle Program is offered most Saturdays from 8am-10:30am when guests can dropin for simple repairs, such as patching flat tires, new rims/spokes, new tires and/or tubes, new seats, racks, bottle cages, and brake and shifter adjustments or replacements. The program provides bike service and repair to an average of 5 bikes every Saturday. Our guests are extremely grateful for the bike program, and we are extremely grateful for Kevin Thompson who runs the program and donated over 220 hours in 2023. Also, a big thank you to Bert George who made a generous donation to the bike program in 2023.
Partnerships
Community Services Agency of Mountain View
CSA and Hope’s Corner entered into an agreement that helped expand the shower and laundry program to include Mondays beginning in August 2022 and continued this partnership throughout 2023. As part of that agreement, CSA case managers work onsite at Hope’s Corner during the Monday morning program. The case managers are able to make appointments to meet with guests at Hope’s Corner as well as be available for walk-up visits. Having the CSA case managers on site helps guests by eliminating transportation problems and allows guests to make appointments earlier in the day than is typically available onsite at CSA.
The United Effort Organization
The United Effort provides assistance to guests who need help ‘beyond a meal’ every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday during the meal program. The United Effort Organization provides personalized, one-on-one assistance by caring volunteers on site at Hope’s Corner. The volunteers love a challenge and have solved many frustrating situations for individuals who seek assistance. Typical assistance includes access to cell phones, food assistance, help applying for benefits, filing for COVID relief funds, unemployment applications, DMV paperwork, tax return filing, and finding housing and employment.
Contributions from local youth
Hope’s Corner receives amazing support from the youth in the community. The passion and dedication seen in these youth is inspiring. Youth support for Hope’s Corner includes local Girl and Boy scout troops, high school service projects, youth groups, school service projects, and individual residents from the area. One project of note is the annual Los Altos Boy Scout Troop 30 Scouting for Food event in November for the benefit of Hope’s Corner. Also, an Eagle Scout project from Troop 30 provided three display carousels to help us distribute vital health and safety information to the guests. Youth support Hope’s Corner with activities like food and supply drives, decorating lunch bags, making table decorations, site cleaning days and so much more.
Thank you to the 2023 volunteers who made it all happen!
In 2023, 978 volunteers logged over 13,000 hours of service
In California, the estimated fair market value for an hour of donated time is $30 per hour. Using this estimate, volunteers contributed time value was $390,000 in 2023! Hope’s Corner employed four part-time employees (a Program Manager, Program Coordinator, and two Program Assistants) in 2023. Almost everything that happens at Hope’s Corner is done by volunteers. In 2023 over 5,200 volunteer shifts were tracked by the volunteer software utilized to manage volunteer shifts and jobs at Hope’s Corner. The volunteer portal allows volunteers to complete a volunteer application and browse volunteer opportunities online. Regular, recurring volunteer opportunities include:
Food preparation and cooking
Meal program service
Meal delivery
Shower and laundry program assistance
Board member work
Administrative tasks (fundraising, community outreach, website, newsletters, etc.)
Holiday program
But wait, there is even more time donated to Hope’s Corner each year! In addition to the regular volunteer time donation captured by our volunteer portal, we enjoy many other volunteer-donated services and projects that support and expand the services we provide. Examples of these donations include haircut service, immunization clinic staff time donations, musical entertainers, volunteers who conduct surveys, volunteers who provide translation services, individuals who help us keep the clothing closet program organized, service groups who donate deep-cleaning time, groups, youth and individuals who decorate and write notes for lunch bags, off-site lunch bag assembly projects, food and supply drives, fundraisers, hat and scarf knitting, volunteers who keep our social media updated, and much more.
The Top 50 Volunteers by hours donated (as captured in VolunteerLocal) 6,386 hours of service to Hope’s Corner in 2023:
2023 Operating Funds
Hope’s Corner relies solely on donations, gifts, sponsors, and grants to run the programs and pay for the expenses necessary to provide the vital services. Again in 2023, generous individual donors provided most of the funding necessary to operate Hope’s Corner. In 2023, we received $609,000 in funding from the following sources:
Individual donations $344,000
Grants $193,000
Wednesday Breakfast Sponsorship $28,000
Fundraising events $19,000
Corporate Sponsorship, Smith Development $15,000
Los Altos United Methodist Church $10,000
Individual donations
Donations from individuals totaled $344,000 and was the largest source of funding for Hope’s Corner programs and services in 2023. Some of these donations are increased by the donors taking advantage of company matching programs and their participation in programs like AmazonSmile and Target Circle. In addition, some of our supporters run their own fundraising events including lemonade stands, selling hand-made items at fairs, Boy Scout and Girl Scout projects, school service projects, Facebook birthday challenges and more.
Grants and Foundation gifts
Grants and foundation gifts total $193,000 in 2023. While some grants and gifts are unrestricted, most are awarded for specific program expenses or services and can only be used for the expenses approved in the award. A summary of the 2023 grants and foundation gifts were provided by:
Valley Medical Center Foundation $70,061
El Camino Healthcare District Grant $30,000
Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Grant $25,000
Los Altos Community Foundation $21,150
Emergency Food and Shelter Program Grant $14,750
Silicon Valley Community Foundation $12,250
Sobrato Family Foundation $8,000
Fremont Bank Foundation $5,000
Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund $2,500
Walmart Community Foundation Grant $1,500
Rotary EClub $1,000
Los Altos Kiwanis Foundation $750
Mountain View Public Safety Foundation $700
Wednesday Breakfast Sponsorship Program
The Wednesday Breakfast program at Hope’s Corner is made possible by groups and individuals who donate $600 toward the cost of the food for the meal and provide six to ten volunteers who prepare and serve the meal. In 2023, 46 of the Wednesday breakfast services were sponsored, generating $28,000 in funding for the food program. The 2023 Wednesday meal sponsors were:
Highway Community - 12 sponsorships
Los Altos United Methodist Church – 11 sponsorships
Congregation Beth Am – 8 sponsorships
Lord’s Grace Christian Church – 7 sponsorships
St Vincent de Paul, St Joseph – 7 sponsorships
Vicki Headley – 1 meal
Hope’s Corner volunteers hosted two fundraisers in 2023.
Tour de Hope 2023 was held on July 20 and raised $11,232. This was a fun team-based spin/cycling event where teams of up to 5 people competed to pedal the farthest over 1 hour. El Camino YMCA in Mountain View hosted the Tour, providing use of their facility and use of their stationary bicycles. Participating teams included groups from Google, other tech companies, Hope’s Corner volunteers and supporters, and Hope’s Corner guests – almost 70 competitors. The team from tech company Codeium won the event and the right to have its name put on the Tour de Hope Cup. Sponsors included Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria, Ava’s Market, Cascal, Cooper Neighborhood Park Association, CycleBar, Dana Street Roasting Company, Eagle Awards, East West Bookshop, Ella Sun and Anson Ip Real Estate, Fenwick & West, Los Altos United Methodist Church, Ludwig’s, Red Rock Café, Soulful Photography, Specialty’s Café and Bakery, Transform Fitness, Vida, and Wagon Wheel BBQ.
Giving Tuesday was held on November 28, 2023 and raised a record $30,172. This annual fundraiser is an international event that encourages the public to support organizations that do good. It occurs every year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving as a way to give back at the outset of the holiday season.
Thank you to the in-kind donors who provided food and supplies that made our program successful in 2023.
Hope’s Corner received thousands of pounds of in-kind donations in 2023 to keep our programs running. Donations include food, drinks, clothing, shoes, socks, backpacks, toiletries, sleeping bags, blankets, decorated lunch bags, masks, Covid tests, gift cards, hand-knitted hats & scarves, laundry soap, cleaning supplies, holiday toys, and much more.
Food Donations
Our largest in-kind donor is Second Harvest Silicon Valley Food Bank. Second Harvest provides items like meat, eggs, milk, peanut butter, juice, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Second Harvest provided 49,179 pounds of free food to Hope’s Corner in 2023 with an estimated donation value of well over $86,000.
The majority of the donated prepared food comes from “A La Carte”, a division of Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen. This program rescues excess food from three local corporate cafeterias and brings the food to Hope’s Corner on Thursday evenings. We received 4,000 meals from A La Carte in 2023, with an estimated donation value of over $8,000.
Another donor of prepared meals rescued from the local companies like LinkedIn and other corporate kitchens comes from Peninsula Food Runners. Peninsula Food Runners pairs corporate kitchens, convention centers and other venues with volunteers who offer to drive the excess food from the venue to a local program that can utilize the food. We received two to three deliveries from Food Runners each Friday evening in 2023. In all, we received approximately 2,500 meals valued at $5,000 in 2023.
Leading the charge in rescuing unused food from the school lunch program, local volunteer Don Gardner and his family developed a food rescue program with Bullis Charter School in 2023. At the end of the week, Don collects the excess school lunch items like fresh fruit and veggie packets, breakfast foods, lunch items and more and delivers them to local food facilities like Hope’s Corner to ensure the food does not get wasted and instead can be enjoyed by people in need of food support. In 2023, Don Gardner delivered 3,892 pounds of food to Hope’s Corner with an estimated value of $6,800. Thanks Don!
Other food donors in 2023 included El Camino Hospital, Intuit, St. Francis High School, San Jose Distributors, Club Estrella, German International School of Silicon Valley, St. Nicholas/St. William Church, Trader Joe’s, Young Mens’ Service League, Le Boulanger, Fruit4Good, Pacifica Institute, and Kal Sandhu.
Community Support
In addition to the above food donors in 2023, donations of in-kind program supplies in 2023 helped to make our programs a success. In-kind donations included items like clothing, backpacks, shoes, toiletries, laundry soap, cleaning supplies, towels, canned food and snack foods, holiday toys, decorated lunch bags, cleaning projects, and more. Our biggest supporters are local neighbors, businesses, schools, churches, community groups and service groups. These donations help us to meet the needs of the guests who come to Hope’s Corner for compassion and assistance. Some of the donors in 2023 included, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, National Charity League, Bullis Charter School, The King’s Academy, Tessellations School, Pinewood School, Vive Church, Village Elementary School, Theuerkauf Elementary School, Keys School Palo Alto, Lafayette Elementary School, Teladoc, TeamLogicIT, SLOBS - Service League of Boys, EarthBreeze, YMSL - Young Men’s Service League, Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, amazing knitter Heidi Chun, Intuit, Stanford Construction, Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, Marvell, Waymo, One Warm Coat, Apple, Compassion Week, Mountain View High Key Club, Mountain View Academy, Cub Scout Pack 80, and many, many more.
Expenses
In 2023 Hope’s Corner expenditures totaled $386,000. The cost of purchased food and meal packaging totaled $106,000, or 27% of total expenses. This equates to $2.43 per meal in 2023. The total cost of the meal program, which includes the purchased food and packaging plus 70% of total rent and utilities, payroll for kitchen staff and management, kitchen equipment, 70% of insurance and technology expenses was $250,000. This equates to 65% of the organization’s total expenses. The fully loaded cost per meal in 2023 was $5.75.
The shower and laundry program expenses totaled $76,000, 20% of total expenses in 2023. The shower and laundry program expenses include 30% of total rent and utilities, payroll for shower program staff and management, program supplies (underwear, t-shirts, soap, cleaning supplies, etc.) and 30% of insurance and technology costs.
The remaining 15% of total costs in 2023 included $25,000 for non-recurring expenses, including new non-slip flooring for the shower rooms, a new freezer, and expansion and renovation of storage room. The regular, recurring administrative costs, bicycle program and holiday program costs in 2023 totaled $35,000, 9% of the total expenses. Hope’s Corner administrative costs include office supplies, professional services, tax filing, accounting, taxes, payment platform fees, and banking fees.
Hope’s Corner 2022 Annual Report
Hope’s Corner 2021 Annual Operations Report
Hope’s Corner, Inc. has been serving free, nutritious meals to homeless, low income and vulnerable residents from Mountain View and surrounding communities since 2011. On January 27th 2021, Hope’s Corner marked a milestone by serving the 100,000th meal. By year end 134,046 cumulative meals had been served.
As Covid-19 continued to impact the community throughout 2021, Hope’s Corner continued to provide vital services and friendly faces (even if those faces did continue to be covered by a mask) throughout the year. Meals continued to be served in a “to-go” format on both Wednesdays and Saturdays and were accessible by either walk-up or drive-thru options for the entire year. Delivery of meals to the Mountain View SafePark program continued on both Wednesdays and Saturdays and we continued to provide the hot meal program for the Day Worker Center of Mountain View on Saturdays. The laundry and shower program was re opened in March after revamping the policies and procedures to ensure the facilities were compliant with all Covid-19 Health and Safety requirements. On top of our regular program, we offered additional services including hygiene kits, clothing, portable chargers, Covid-19 vaccine clinics, flu shot clinics, haircuts, holiday toys, gift cards, coffee bar, and much more.
Meal Program Results
Hope’s Corner volunteers prepared and cooked healthy meals from scratch in the onsite kitchen every week during 2021. On Saturdays, the meal program provided a hot meal in a takeout box with 4-5 hot items which included protein, eggs, potatoes/rice, and fresh hot vegetables. On Wednesdays, the hot meal included 1-2 hot items. All meals were, complimented by a bag of cold foods like green salad, fresh fruit, cheese, and shelf stable snacks like protein bars, fruit cups, crackers, nut butters, canned meat, cereals, nuts, milk or juice.
Hope’s Corner prepared hot meals twice a week, every week, for a total of 104 meal service days in 2021. In total, 36,853 meals were prepared and served by Hope’s Corner in 2021. Meals were served on Wednesdays 8:00am-9:00am and Saturdays 8:00am-10:00am.
• 25,496 meals were served to guests who came to the onsite program at Hope’s Corner. • 7,333 meals were provided to residents of the Mountain View SafePark program residing in their car, RV or van in nearby parking lots.
• 3,870 meals were provided to the Mountain View Day Worker center • 100 meals were provided to LifeMoves new HomeKey program when they first opened in September 2021.
2021 Meal Program On-Site Guest Demographics
In total, 1,734 individuals came to Hope’s Corner for a hot meal in 2021. The majority of the meal program guests live in Mountain View (63.5%) and Sunnyvale (14.5%) with a few coming from various other near-by cities. Just over half (58%) of the guests reported they have permanent shelter, while 21% reported they live in a vehicle or RV, 13% live outside and 8% are in a temporary shelter. Youth (children age 17 and under) represented 11% of the guests who received a meal in 2021, and seniors (adults age 60 and over) totaled 42% of meal participants.
HOPE’S CORNER SHOWER AND LAUNDRY PROGRAM
The shower and laundry program was suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The program was re-opened in March 2021 with new policies and procedures to comply with Covid-19 safety guidelines. Some of the additional sanitizing steps to ensure the shower rooms were safe during the pandemic included fogging the shower room between each participant with an anti-viral and allowing the room to air-out for at least 10 minutes between showers. These additional sanitizing steps reduce the number of shower appointments available during a program day, but were necessary to ensure the safety of the shower guests, volunteers and
Hope’s Corner staff. In addition to the revised policies, a dedicated shower and laundry program employee was hired to ensure compliance with all cleaning and sanitizing protocols. The shower and laundry program was reserved for unhoused residents and is offered on Wednesdays 8:30am-12pm and Saturdays 8:30am-2:30pm.
The shower program was offered on 84 days in 2021. In total, 1,019 showers were enjoyed by 154 individuals. Although the program is open to youth, we did not have anyone under 18 years of age participate in the shower program in 2021. The majority of shower participants were adult males (age 18-59) who accounted for 70% of the showers and senior males (age 60+) who utilized 13% of the showers. Shower program participants are offered towels and hygiene supplies for their shower and they can also receive new underclothing, socks, toiletry supplies, clothing, backpacks and shoes if needed.
The laundry program was also offered on 84 days in 2021. In total, 314 loads of laundry were washed and dried for 66 individuals; 43 adult male, 17 adult female, 6 senior male. No youth or senior females participated in the laundry program in 2021. Laundry program participants are allowed one load of laundry per program day.
More than Meals & Showers
As the Covid-19 crisis continued to disrupt lives and make access to services difficult in 2021, Hope’s Corner continued to offer services and activities for our guests. We continued to recruit volunteers to come help provide our guests with free goods and services such as flu shots, Covid vaccines and boosters, Santa Clara County Health services, haircuts, gift cards, custom crafted coffee bar, holiday toys, hygiene supplies including masks and hand sanitizer and clothing.
Hope’s Corner guests also have access to The United Effort Organization, Inc., for those who need help ‘beyond a meal’ every Wednesday and Saturday during the meal program. The United Effort Organization provides personalized, one-on-one assistance by caring volunteers onsite at Hope’s Corner. The volunteers love a challenge and have solved many frustrating situations for individuals who seek assistance. Typical assistance includes access to cell phones, solar power and batteries, help applying for benefits, filing for COVID relief funds, unemployment applications, DMV paperwork, tax return filing, and finding housing and employment.
Happy Holidays!
Although the Covid-19 crisis continued, the generous and tireless Hope’s Corner volunteer elves could not imagine a holiday with festive food and toys. The 2021 holidays were made brighter for 213 families totaling over 700 youth at our annual toy give away. Each family received a $25 Walmart gift card and each child received 3 toys selected by their parent/guardian plus a stuffed animal, book, and stocking stuffers. We also had warm clothing, socks and holiday food items for each family.
Bicycle Program
Hope’s Corner partners with Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange to keep our guests moving. The program provided 110 bicycles to our guests in 2021. Our dedicated bicycle volunteers ensure the gift of a bike also includes a helmet, lock and lights for safety. In addition, the Bicycle Program provides ongoing simple repairs such as flat tire repairs and brake adjustments. And in 2021, Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange and Hope’s Corner offered a bike repair workshop onsite at Hope’s Corner for more extensive repairs.
Thank you to the financial donors that made it happen
We received generous donations and grants in 2021 allowing us to meet the needs of our guests throughout the year.
Operating Income* in 2021 totaled $473,901. Funding for the 2021 programs and service provided by Hope’s Corner were funded by:
Individual donations and gifts $300,015
Foundation Grants $100,400
Church gifts $39,038
Stock Donations $19,433
Company Gifts $11,923
Other $3,093
*Operating income excludes non-recurring, non-operating pass-through income in 2021.
Although Covid continued to disrupt lives and the economy, our individual donors opened their wallets in 2021 and donated a record $300,015. Donation sources include direct donations, indirect donations via company matching programs, participation in programs like AmazonSmile, Target Circle, and participation in fundraising events and activities.
Grants were awarded to Hope’s Corner in 2021 to fund specific programs and services. These grants were provided by:
• El Camino Healthcare District $30,000
• The Callison Foundation $20,000
• Los Altos Community Foundation $15,000
• 100 Women Charitable Foundation $10,000
• Emergency Food and Shelter Program $8,000
• Fremont Bank $5,000
• The Dorsey & Whitney Foundation $5,000
• Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund $3,900
• Sereno Group of Los Altos $2,500
• Los Altos Sunset Rotary Endowment Fund $1,000
The Wednesday Breakfast program at Hope’s Corner is made possible by groups and individuals who donate $600 toward the cost of the food for the meal and provide six to ten volunteers who prepare and serve the meal. Forty-seven of the fifty-two Wednesday breakfast services were sponsored in 2021 generating $28,000 to offset the cost of food. Our sponsors, and the number of meals they sponsored, are:
• Los Altos United Methodist Church - 14 meals
• Highway Community – 13 meals
• Lord’s Grace Christian Church – 6 meals
• Apple & The Hubel family – 5 meals
• Congregation Beth Am – 3 meals
• Red Rock Coffee – 2 meals
• LDS Church – 1 meal
• St Francis High School- 1 meal
• Palo Alto Vineyard Church- 1 meal
• Cooper Park Association 1 meal
And our local businesses helped out too! We received generous donations from our neighbors including BMW of Mountain View, Helmings Auto Repair, Nautilus Ventures Management, Simplesoft, Inc., GSD Solutions
Thank you to the donors who provided the supplies that made our program successful in 2021.
Hope’s Corner received thousands of pounds of in-kind donations in 2021 to keep our programs running. Donations included: food, drinks, clothing, shoes, backpacks, toiletries, decorated lunch bags, masks, batteries, toys, bicycles, bike locks, lights, helmets, gift cards, hand knitted hats & scarves, solar lanterns, cleaning supplies, and much more. Our largest in-kind donor is Second Harvest Silicon Valley Food Bank. Second Harvest provided 55,630 pounds of food in 2021. In addition to Second Harvest, we received food donations from A La Carte, Food Runners, Village Harvest, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Nation a Charity League Orchard Valley Chapter, and many individual donors.
Expenses
Hope’s Corner makes a deliberate effort to use funding for direct program service expenses. In 2021 Hope’s Corner operating expenses* totaled $268,619 of which $205,901 (77%) was the direct cost for the meal program (food, food packaging, facility rent, utilities, cooking &
operating equipment, janitorial, truck expense) and $27,707 (10%) was the direct cost of the shower/laundry program (utilities, supplies, program staff). Administrative costs totaled $23,732 (9%) and includes insurance, office supplies, technology expense, professional services (tax filing, consultants, etc) taxes and fees. Costs for the bicycle program totaled $3,334 (1%). Costs for the Holiday Toy Drive $7945 (3%).
*Operating expenses excludes non-recurring non-operating pass-through expenses in 2021.
Thank you to the volunteers who made it all happen!
Hope’s Corner employs only two part-time employees (Program Coordinator and Program Assistant). Therefore, almost everything that happens at Hope’s Corner is done by volunteers. Volunteers logged over 10,000+ hours of program service assistance on site at Hope’s Corner in 2021 centered in the following areas:
• Wednesday food program volunteers: 1,800 hours
• Wednesday SafePark food distribution volunteers: 300 hours
• Friday food preparation volunteers: 2,500 hours
• Saturday food program volunteers: 4,800 hours
• Saturday SafePark food distribution volunteers: 500 hours
• Shower and laundry program volunteer hours: 250 hours
• Bicycle program volunteer hours: 200 hours
In addition to program volunteers, we enjoy many other onsite volunteer time that make our guests’ experience at Hope’s Corner special. These volunteers include barbers, hair stylists, flu shot clinics, covid vaccine clinics, musical entertainers, holiday events, battery programs, surveys, translation, basement organization, and one-on-one services provided by United Effort.
But wait, there is more! There are countless more work hours donated off-site including lunch bag decorating, toiletry kit assembly, supply drives, fundraisers, labeling to-go boxes, sewing masks, hat and scarf knitting, website maintenance, newsletters and publications development, and so much more.
Thank you!
2020 Annual Report
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