WVCS Volunteers Appreciated with Rio Adobe Dinner

The staff of West Valley Community Services turned the tables Wednesday night and did something nice for their volunteers, who donate many hours of their time and energy to the nonprofit, by honoring them at a dinner held at Quinlan Community Center during National Volunteer Week.

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 nonprofit 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 WVCS’s multiple programs running.

Vans from local grocery stores such as 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.

Halchin, who started volunteering a few months ago is a newcomer to WVCS and its food pantry that distributes more than 400,000 pounds of food to impoverished individuals and families in the communities of Cupertino, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga and West San Jose.

There are plenty of longtime volunteers and board members who got hooked on the work the nonprofit provides. Board president George Tyson is one who 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.

West Valley Community Services helps provide the basic needs of health, housing and family support and emergency services.