All right, the recording has started.

And the time is 7 01 p.m.

We need to do the pledge of allegiance first.

Please rise.

I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America to the Republic for which stands one just okay.

Would you like to do real call?

Yes.

Thank you.

Chair Frey.

Mostly here.

Vice Chair Albert.

Here.

Commissioner Lum.

Yeah.

Roby.

Here.

Mason?

Here.

Picado?

Here.

Reed?

Here.

And Bailey and O'Brien are excused.

Thank you.

And on the consent calendar, we have uh last week's or last month's July's minutes.

We didn't meet last month.

Yes, we did.

No, we did.

We did.

Did we?

Yeah.

What month is it?

I wasn't here, but Pedro Ram the meeting.

I almost came until I got my car in September.

I was on my way.

Yes.

Oh, you mean?

Oh, and I was like, oh, wait, there we go.

August.

Yes, that's right.

July meeting.

I kind of did the same.

Um I make a motion that we accept the minutes.

Oh, second.

Thank you.

All in favor.

Anybody?

Anybody want to abstain?

Anyone okay?

Great.

Uh that was motioned by Commissioner Roby and seconded by Commissioner Lump.

Thank you.

Hi.

Unanimous item four is city staff reports and announcements.

I actually don't have anything to see.

Whipping right through this.

Okay.

Do we have any public comments?

And no e-comments came in either.

Okay.

And off we go.

Okay, we're up to number six.

We have a presentation by the San Leander Community Food Pantry.

Uh Jesse.

I cutter Kim here.

And if it's okay, I'm gonna join you all at the table for that.

Of course.

Would you like to sit up here, Chess?

Uh, if that's easier for people to see, otherwise I'm good here.

Okay.

All right.

If you can take one and hand them to your own.

I'm just passing out a flyer.

Um, all the same information is in the presentation, but it's just a flyer for you to take and hand to somebody if you feel inspired to.

Um, my name is Jesse Cutter.

Um, I am with the San Leandro Community Food Pantry.

And so um, I'm gonna be going over who we are, what we do, and how to get involved.

Um, I was planning to move quickly so that way we have questions and answers at the end.

Um, but it looks like we have a little extra time today.

So um feel free to stop and ask questions at any point.

Um if you have any questions.

Um, so I am now on slide three.

Who we are.

Um so the San Leandro Community Food Pantry is a volunteer-run organization that provides food to our community.

We are located at Bancroft at 142nd Avenue.

Um, anyone in Alameda County is eligible.

Um, we do not turn people away for food, so even if someone is outside of Alameda County, we don't turn them away.

But majority of our guests are from San Leandro.

In the pictures on slide three, um, is a volunteer at our cake table.

Um five volunteers in front of our red registration desk, and they are holding up bags of pet food, and then a volunteer at um holding up a box of cereal on slide four.

Um we were founded by members of Bethel Community Presbyterian Church in 2012.

They started recognizing there's a major shortage of food, and so they started doing you know year-long research, um, visiting other pantries, trying to figure out what was gonna work best for them.

Um, and so in 2023, they opened um by doing bags of groceries.

Um, in 2015, um, they became a partner agency of the Alameda County Food Bank.

Um, and so a partner agency means you get free of produce and fruit, and then you can also purchase food at a discounted rate from them, and then if they have a surplus or extra food, then they will distribute it out through all of their partner agencies based on how many people each agency serves.

In 2017, we established the San Leandro Community Food Pantry as a 501c3 nonprofit, and we started renting space from Bethel Presbytery.

So that's when we officially made the split and became our own nonprofit.

In 2023, we hired our one and only pantry coordinator, someone to help us coordinate all of the kind of daytime operations that I'll tell you about in another slide.

Volunteers are everything for us.

During the day, we have 10 to 15 volunteers per week.

They pick up, record, sort, organize all of the donations, they clean our pantry storage rooms, they prepare pet food bags, and our volunteer coordinator helps, or our pantry coordinator helps coordinate all of those pickups and organization in the back room.

Our evenings, every Thursday evening, we have on average 32 volunteers per distribution.

They greet guests, they do setup and take town, they distribute food from January to June in 2025.

We had 107 volunteers that filled 828 shifts.

That was just about 2,090 hours.

So we are really dependent on the volunteers in the community, and they are everything to us.

So a little bit about what we do.

Our grocery recovery program is how we get majority of our non-produced food.

Our produce primarily comes from Alameda County Food Bank, and some of it does come from our grocery recovery program, but majority of the grocery recovery pro grocery recovery program food is non-produce.

And so it is through Feeding America and the Alameda County Food Bank that allows us to pick up surplus food from the grocery stores.

This fits the requirements of CAAB 1383 that requires the reduction of food sent to landfill.

So we are saving this food from going into the landfill and giving it to people who can benefit from it.

The San Landro Community Food Pantry currently picks up from eight different organizations, and that is 16 pickups per week.

We keep our volunteers very busy and our coordinator very busy.

On slide seven, you'll see that the pounds of food that we've saved from landfill has consistently gone up.

In 2021, we saved about 150,000 pounds, and in 2024, we saved about 105,000 or 405,000 pounds.

In 2023 is when the increased enforcement of SB 1383 went into place.

So that really prompted more organizations and grocery stores to make sure they're sending everything they can to us.

And so we'll make sure that we get all of these to April showers so that way they can have them for the guests who attend.

On slide nine, you'll see our Thursday night distribution.

So this is our main event.

Every Thursday, we are open from 6 to 8 p.m.

Our line starts at 5 p.m.

We ask or we ask that people don't come before 5 because when we didn't have a time, then people would show up at 9 a.m.

for 6 p.m.

distribution, and that made no one happy.

They would just hang out, party in the parking lot, and nobody enjoys that.

And so we asked that people don't come before five.

And so we distribute numbers in random order.

And so we found this is the best way that's currently working for us.

We are always trying to figure out the best way to keep it so people don't have to stand in line long.

And it's also fair and equitable for people who don't have as much time in the evenings.

And so what we do is we have people line up at five.

At 5 15, we go out and distribute numbers in random order.

First person in line might get number one or might get number 100.

But what you know is that if you get a number, you'll be through, and you only have to wait for about an hour.

Versus if we didn't have a system, then people started coming at nine, and then they'd just start the line from then.

And so it really does help us keep that line in the beginning shorter.

We only give out numbers for people who are online at about 5:15.

After that, people just line up and they'll come in as they arrive.

And so I always tell people if you can't come at 5:15, then you'll want to come after 6:45 because that's when the line is just constantly moving in.

We do client choice, which means clients are allowed to make their own choices based on what's offered at each table.

So we'll usually have a table that's filled with different proteins, dairies or yogurts, deli items, which is the most random but often the most fun table.

It has things like hummus, different dips, it might have pre-made salads, really those kind of items that you're never sure where it belongs.

That's what we consider our deli items.

Cheese, we also get McDonald's portions donated to us, and so it'll have different parts of McDonald's.

Um so you might have either the buns or the extra egg or the hash browns, the pancakes, and those are all individually wrapped that people can get.

We usually have a stapled item or a dry goods table that will have a rice, a bean, um, or a pasta.

Then we'll have pastries and baked sweets, fresh fruits and veggies, and cereal and snacks.

And so this ensures we will always be refreshing the food.

So we store our food in the back rooms and we'll continuously bring it out throughout the night.

So that way it makes sure that the food doesn't just go to the first people in line, and that way everyone will have access to it.

And we really find that this cuts down on waste when even over the pandemic, we reverted back to doing bags of food, and just not everyone needs everything, and so a lot of people would leave items or they'll bring it back to us a couple weeks later and donate it all back to us, and so it really helps to make sure there's less waste going through.

Or there was the famous hedge down the street.

Yes, people were putting cans of green beans that they didn't want.

Yes, and the person that owns the property came back with the box.

These are yours.

Yes.

Um, on average, um, in 2025, we've been serving about 346 people per week.

For perspective, pre-pandemic, we were closer to you know, 200 was a really big night for us.

Um, in the beginning of pandemic, it shot up and then it kind of lowered again, and we've consistently grown since 20 um 24, and so now we are anywhere between kind of 3:30 and um we've even hit I think 398 a couple times, and so we are seeing a huge increase.

We also have our partnership with the SPCA East Bay, and so they donate um bags of dog food and cat food to us, and then our volunteers break it down into gallon-sized bags.

So we distribute cat and dog food every second and fourth Thursdays of the month from January to June 2025.

We've distributed 3,246 bags of food.

This is another area that we've seen an increase.

Um, and we're really trying to encourage that people don't need to make the choice between feeding themselves and feeding their pets.

Um, we want to make sure that they have the opportunity to do both.

The best part is how to get involved.

Um, so the best ways to get involved with us is by donating food or bags.

Um, you know, if you are a parent of a kindergartner and you want to challenge the other kindergartner classes to a food pantry, um, then you might donate 1700 pounds of food to us.

Um, Commissioner Ogberg just um challenged the other kindergarten classes at Roosevelt and they came up with 1700 pounds of food for us.

And so these are at Havens and Pe Bon.

Sorry.

Oh, Haven't the school I work at.

Oh, great.

Well, thank you for that.

That will carry staple food pretty much through the Hall of Ames.

Which is unreal.

They're having their popsicle party tomorrow.

Exactly.

Yeah, we really that's the motivator.

And then if you ever find yourself with extra clean, sturdy bags, um, we also take bag donations.

We encourage all of our guests and participants to bring their own bags.

Um they also bring carts.

Um, but for people who are their first time, sometimes people forget their bags, or oftentimes people who are coming on bikes, they need an extra bag sometimes.

Um so we do take donations of clean, sturdy bags.

Um, time if you ever want to donate your time.

We have lots of options for that.

Thursday evening pantry distribution is the easiest and most common.

It's 5 to 8:30 p.m.

on Thursdays.

We have daytime sorting and grocery recovery drivers or helpers.

Um, or you can donate your time by helping by sharing this with your networks.

It's really helpful because you never know who's interested and who wants to get involved.

Um, it's a great way for people to meet each other, to hang out, to um really serve the community.

So sharing with your networks is something that's really valuable to us as well.

Um, and then of course, there's always money.

You're always welcome to donate money and pass that along to others as well.

And that is the end of my presentation.

Um, the last slide is our contact information.

Um, so we have a website, a phone number, our pantry location is at Bethel Community.

We rent space from them.

Uh, we do have a mailing address if you ever want to send us a note, or you can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook.

Question.

So I know that the line it ends at eight, but how often do your volunteers go past eight?

Our volunteers are booked until 8:30.

Okay.

Because we will serve anyone who is in line at 8.

Gotcha.

It is very rare.

Well, it's not super rare, but we rarely go past like 805 with actual clients.

Gotcha.

We um we'll start gauging it around 7:30, and then we will graciously encourage people to move quicker.

And so we really try to get people going.

And we we got a pretty good system, and a lot of the people who come right before eight, they do it on purpose.

And they like not having to wait in line, and they like just reason through.

And so it's our regulars usually who come at that last little bit.

Absolutely.

Um, and so they're you they're kind of used to it.

Um, but the other nights, you know, and they'll tell us, oh, I saw the line, I wasn't gonna come, you know.

So but we we try to get our volunteers out by like 8:15.

Um, but we will serve anyone in line who's at eight.

Cool.

Thanks.

Yeah.

And so far, I don't I can't think of time we've run out of food early and said, sorry, gang, it's all over.

Yeah, head on.

That's it.

We always um plan our food, and thanks to our daytime crew, really um, we do more of a category versus a specific item.

So that way we'll have enough food for everyone all night long.

So and then when we get special things donated, like if we ever get um like extra turkeys or hams, like those larger items.

You know, if we only get like 15, 20 of them, we'll raffle them off.

We'll either pick times or numbers ahead of time so that way when people check in, they win um a turkey or a ham.

Cool.

Thank you.

Yeah, you're very welcome.

I have a question.

Yes.

Um, thank you for what you do, by the way.

Um, could you share a little bit how um maybe the community food services grant um has benefited um the pantry or like what you know what changes you're seeing you are seeing or your volunteers are seeing for the participants?

Yeah, so our um we were very thankful to get the grant.

Um and it's really beneficial because there's not there's we are fortunate to get money from Alameda County Food Bank, but it's usually very specific on what we can spend it on, and so it's really helpful to be able to kind of diversify what we're able to get with the grant funding from the city of San Landro from this commission.

Um we've really seen just the flexibility of being able to spend it on, I believe we're doing the heating and um we are purchasing extra food.

We did a survey of our members to figure out what kind of fruits and vegetables that they want, and it was very unusual.

Well, I did not expect this at least, and everyone said broccoli.

Oh I thought it was gonna be something more unique or different, but overwhelmingly the majority of people wanted more broccoli, and so sure.

Um, we'll do that.

I don't have broccoli.

Uh it was just unexpected.

I was I was expecting something different because anytime we ask them an open question, they always tell me they want more steak.

And so I was like, well, sure, okay.

Oh I'm done.

One thing that's going on is I think everybody is kind of aware of the political situation, and as it were, worsens the client numbers go up.

But the amount the the Alameda County Community Food Bank has never turned people down that I know of.

Anytime we've asked for stuff, they've given it to us if they have it.

But what used to be a three-page list to order from is a page now.

So this funding helps.

Sorry, I'm stepping there, but it it helps us be able, you know.

First, before all this, what we want to do is just buy produce, but now dairy is getting very hard to come by.

Uh, we try and keep uh at least a two-week supply of shelf stable milk, and that's that's really a small amount because what you get is a quart.

Uh you know, fresh dairy donated from grocery stores is generally a gallon or a half gallon.

This is a quart, but we want to have something particularly for families with young children.

And this helps us.

Yeah, milk's expensive.

And I have a question.

So the grant that they received, correct me if I'm wrong, that was just for 2025, 2026, right?

So do we have any idea of what might come 26, 27 since they weren't eligible for the cat program for the last eligible for just the um the general funding, right?

But yeah, it is what I is confirmed that it was only one-time funding.

Okay, and currently it's not in the budget for a renewed uh a second round of funding.

Okay, unfortunately.

We we have been short of board members.

If anybody is so inclined, however, we did we have recently added a woman to the board who has some background in um she's more familiar with grants than I think I am any of us, so we will be pressing her into straight.

And the other thing the money really helps us do is um, you know, some people really want to donate like 50 bags of like a 50-pound bag of rice, but unfortunately um we can't re or we can't redistribute food and rebag it.

And so when we are running short, we'll buy extra spaghetti or you know, one pound bag of rice, so that way we can make sure we have enough for everyone.

Um, and so that's also what we help do.

All those staple items that we really like to have, you know, the pasta, the rice, the bags of beans, um, those are really important to a lot of folks who come, and so we make sure we always have the staples on hand.

Yeah, I didn't know that's very good point about not being able to repack it.

Yeah, yeah.

So oftentimes people, you know, I got this whole thing and I'm not gonna use it.

Unfortunately, we can't either because we and so if someone just drops it off to us, we'll you know, we'll make sure we it finds a home with a volunteer or something, but we are not allowed to kind of repackage the dog food week and cat food we can because it's not for human consumption.

Um, but we are not allowed to for human food.

You have to have a certified sterile facility to repackage.

Yeah, however, if you take things back like giant cans of hominy or 50-pound bags of rice to the food pantry, they can get them to somebody who's doing active cooking.

Yeah, uh, St.

Vincent de Paul in Oakland cooks several thousand lunches every day.

So they can use stuff like that.

What about um you know so many people have fruit trees in their yards and stuff?

You've got like a whole bunch, and it's either feast or family.

I'm like humongous amount of apples or persimmons or something.

Do you guys take plums, man?

Yeah, it's plum time.

It is plum time.

Yeah, you guys take donations like that.

Yes, we do take donations like that.

It is best if those can come in on Thursdays.

Okay, we don't have a lot of storage space, and oftentimes um those, depending on when they're coming in, won't last all the way till Thursday.

Um, but yeah, we can take uh produce um vegetables from people's garden.

I just got a call from somebody, and there is a group in San Leandro that is starting to explore um getting a kind of a group together where if you have extra fruit or produce, you can ask these volunteers to come help you pick it, and then they'll bring it to designated places, and so we're gonna work with them on that.

And so we're gonna work with them on that.

That's what group is called Forester.

And they're they're working with um a lot of different groups.

They operate a community garden in Habered.

Um they also do a program with the unhoused in areas that they are living that are wildlands, creeks, and watersheds, and Forrester has a few grants, they'll pay people $25 a bag for big garbage bags full of garbage that they pick up and bring out to the creek.

And Forrester, I think is going to start.

There is a program that the gleaning is based on that's operated for several years in Atlamita for their food bank.

And so this is very exciting because again, what she's saying, you know, plums oranges.

Yeah, I'm getting rained on before.

You know, you're walking under two orange trees and you get bunged.

I have so many personnels.

So thanks for letting me know.

Yes.

Excellent.

Yeah.

Well, everyone has the contact information.

Um, and on our website, um, there's a place, like if you do have the food and you come on our website for donate, they're talk a little bit about the best times to donate food to us.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely appreciate your time.

Thank you.

If if someone wanted a volunteer, do they just show up?

Or do you have a like a registration process?

Yeah, we prefer that they contact us ahead of time.

Okay.

Um, they can register by emailing us, or we are on slkindness.net.

Oh, okay.

Um, I also the phone number you can also text to it, although I prefer email if that is an option.

Um then, of course, I'll take phone calls if I have to.

And if somebody wants to volunteer for daytime ops, um call or text me or whatever, you know, the important thing is come in and see what you're getting into before you commit.

That's a good idea.

Is there a um an age limit?

Like if a group of like girl scouts wants to come and volunteer.

Yeah, we ask anyone under 15 to have a one-on-one ratio with an adult.

Okay.

Um, and the main purpose for that is we like to have enough volunteers and not too many.

And when you're at a table, you're usually at a table to give things out to guests, and not all young folks are um comfortable with that, or if they get asked a question, sometimes they don't know how to know how to answer it.

Um, and so we ask everyone under um 15 to come with an adult.

Oh, we do have folks there though doing their service hours, lots of service hours.

Yeah, we have people from Cal State East Bay, um, all of the local high schools, um, some middle schools, um, a lot of people doing their court ordered hours with us as well.

Um, and a lot of people end up staying with us, so it's nice.

Excellent.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Jess.

You're very welcome.

Okay.

Any other questions or no moving along community assistance program annual data report?

Okay, that maybe me talking about that one.

That's the same Elsa.

That's me.

So for those of you who were here last time, um, it was probably about a year ago.

Um, we had uh two interns in our department who made this presentation.

If that rings a bell, um, and it was done for the annual data for fiscal years 23 and 24.

So now that the two-year cap grant cycle has finished, this is a two-year um uh data uh data report.

Okay, on the second page, it's just a refresher, especially for uh those of you who are new.

Um, it's the five agencies that we funded.

Oh, you don't have one.

It's a it might be underneath your um we have we have one of mine.

Oh, you printed one.

Oh, and color how fancy.

There we go.

Thank you.

Sorry, does everybody have one?

I should have checked before I started.

Oh, okay.

I mean, yeah, happy to share.

But that way you have your own if you wanted to.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I do want to be cognizant that you just joined the commission.

So I'm just gonna give a little quick um recap or summary on what the CAP grant is.

We talked on the phone.

Okay, so you're familiar with the CAP grant.

So these are the five agencies that we funded the last grant cycle that uh finished June 30th, and so we're in the new two-year cycle, and um this group of commissioners selected 16 agencies.

I'm like, I have 11 for CFS, 16 for CAP, I have so many contracts.

Um this is was a much easier number, but it's nice that we funded a lot more, or that the commission funded a lot more.

So these are the five agencies that were funded um to do this work, and so this amount that you see on the uh on the total is per fiscal year.

And then on page three, where you see total San Leandro residents served.

Uh it's 1,037 of residents were served that were funded specifically by the CAP grant.

So these agencies are these programs that they do, they they serve a lot more than this number.

However, from that specific funding and how many of those were San Leandro specifically, this is the number that we're looking at.

So it boils down to a lot smaller than they're actually serving, but it's just so that we know exactly specifically how many dollars are going back to San Leandrins from that pot of funding.

Okay.

Next page is the age distribution of those grants.

You'll see that 63% of the recipients were adults ages 18 to 49.

30 percent are children, and seven percent are seniors age 50 and up.

So the data suggests that the program is primarily helping working age adults with a substantial percentage of services provided to children.

Um if you were to go back to last year's presentation, these numbers are almost spot on to the first fiscal year.

Um did not change very much, maybe a couple percentage points.

The next page, gender distribution of San Leo, San Leandro residents served.

Here it um uh we'll see it's 71.6 percent female, uh male is 19%, and other uh the 9.4% could be um that it could be non-binary, non-binary, it could be that they didn't report um or chose uh or chose not to.

Um here we did have a bigger change from last fiscal year.

Uh last fiscal year it was 82% female, and so we have a bigger percentage of male this time.

I thought that was interesting.

That's a pretty comforting number that that you know folks are getting more aware of services that are out there.

Let's read uh the next page, uh the income distribution.

Um we I mess this up every time.

Um median income, average median income.

Is that right?

Okay, thank you.

I always want to say a different acronym.

Thank you for that.

Um you'll see that um we have sorry it's not clicking.

Uh it's about 68% is in the extremely low income.

Um I want to say it was about six percent very low income, uh 25 24 percent uh in the low income, and then it was just one percent in the moderately low income um of the uh residents served.

The following page is the breakdown of the racial ethnic data.

Um, and this uh next the two pie charts, uh one of them is our total uh San Leandro population as from the 2020 census, and then the pie chart on the right was based on the data for the 1037 uh program recipients, and I won't read all of those off.

We had plenty.

So uh last page in conclusion.

Um we do show that the program is successfully targeting San Leandro's most vulnerable communities by primarily serving our low and extremely low income households.

We're very proud of the work that the CAP grant is doing, and I'm excited to see what next um the next report will look like, considering it's a lot triple more than triple the amount of agencies funded.

Any questions on that?

I just want to make a quick comment.

Sure.

Um I found that the the uh uh seniors in the age distribution.

I'm really hoping that um our new funding will help increase that number maybe a little bit more, giving the aging population that we have here in San Leandro from the census that I saw that you guys were in the first join the committee.

Yeah, you know, it it I was wondering about that too, and then I also look back at the grants that were funded, and you'll see back at the very the second page, right?

Um I wouldn't necessarily say that any of those agencies are specifically focusing on seniors, right?

But we have wheels on wheels this time.

Oh no, no, yeah, for next time.

Oh, sorry, I thought you were meant like why was it so low this?

No, no, no, no.

I I get why, but I'm glad that we addressed that issue because it's important to me.

Perfect, just making sure I understand that correctly.

I did the calculation and it was 154 dollars per person.

So I think that's a steal.

I do that's great.

That's great.

It's amazing.

Good job.

Any other questions on that data?

So this is a new this last year was the first time we did a report of this kind.

Um, and so what will what you can look forward to is that annually there will be a report.

The first fiscal year will only include the first fiscal year, and when the two-year cap grant cycle, I'll do an overall for the two years since that's and how much time do you have to set aside to do that in agencies?

I yeah, this I had to take an Excel course to help me break down this data.

Oh, yeah.

So, yeah, next time I'll start early.

Thank you so much.

Happy to see it this way, broke broke broken down.

It's good to know the good work that's being done by the commission in the city.

It it can be kind of discouraging because if you go to different meetings, I mean, we see things that are going on in the city, and every chance I get I'm telling people about all the great stuff we're doing, but I'll still hear people call into council meeting and say, Well, you know there's homeless people, or you know there's domestic violence, or you know this, and you're not doing anything about it.

It's like the council sits there and smiles because they can't say, yes, we are but it would be wonderful to be able to have this more publicized.

Okay, that's good feedback.

Um, because I think we actually are working on something like that to go on our website, uh some something like a dashboard.

Great um, so more to come.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Does this get ever get um like um like an agenda item like for this report for city council?

Oh, for city council, uh not for city council.

Um, so no, it doesn't it does not go because I mean most of the time you're not gonna see a ton of people there, you'll see like a handful unless it's something we're like so um I can't give the specifics because I'm not that I'm not privy to that information, but I report to Jessica, Jessica, the department director, um, every like quarter, she'll ask for metrics, right?

Okay, how many people are being served for this division and this division, and those metrics do become like part of a greater report that does go to the executive team that goes to council that goes to city manager's office, but it's not an agenda item, right?

So council is is is getting that information, is seeing the data.

Uh data has become a big thing now.

Um, I say now because when I first started here, I wasn't looking at numbers like this because we weren't even in department yet, right?

I was still part of recreation and human services.

Now we're just human services, and we're really still fleshing out the department.

It's only been two, three years.

I don't even know if it's been that long.

Um so um, so no, I don't I know that it doesn't go to council that way.

Their consent um calendar is already so full.

Um but um I do know that at least council is seeing metrics, and there are council members that um our council is always in the community, you'll find them everywhere, and it's always so easy to say, hey, you know, let me tell you about the food pantry, or let me tell you about April showers and had some pretty good discussions and also some invitations to meet officially and talk.

So any any advert advertising or information you want to spread, I think it's probably very welcomed.

Yeah, yeah, a part of why presentations are coming to the commission is to create like ambassadors out of the commissioners, right?

To share the knowledge, uh also an opportunity to for task questions because as you hear, we've the commission funded 16 cap agencies, right?

Then there's another amount that were funded for CDBG, then we funded 11 for the community food services, and there's still so many other divisions within our department.

I don't always get the opportunity to say, how's it going?

I'm reading these reports all day.

Uh and so it's just nice to hear, like, you know, what what's happening with that?

How's how's it working out?

So it's just another, it's nice to sit down one-on-one and not just read a proposal and like okay, here's the check, right?

It's a nice opportunity for the commissioners to become experts of the services that are available in the community.

Also, every one of us has been appointed by a member of the council, and I happen to be an at large person, so I owe my position to the mayor, and I never hesitate.

Come on, I got something to tell you.

So, do I mean feel free to reach out to your council members and to your neighbors?

The more you talk, the more people know that's it.

Thank you, Elsa.

Yeah, appreciate the hardware.

Yeah, talk to you about the XL part.

Um moving on, action items canceling our November and December commission meetings, which you mean next month is our last meeting for the year.

So who's bringing the turkey in?

Yeah, generally when council well, Thursday.

What we wouldn't meet on the night before Thanksgiving, right?

I don't know, maybe we should just kidding, just kidding.

That was a smart cook.

Two months.

Um the other one is the day before Christmas is Christmas Eve.

So yeah, that's the night uh Christ Christmas Eve and the night before Thanksgiving.

So if I may add, um since the commission's uh main charge is the CAP grants that which you've just done, we're in the lull year, and so if it was not, then I would suggest a special meeting.

Um, in place of those two meetings, it would probably happen like early December in between both of the holidays.

Um but because we're in the lull year and there's nothing pressing at this moment.

The recommendation is to cancel those meetings because we most likely will not hit quorum.

Yeah, however, we do need a motion.

Oh, yes, please.

Motion to canceled meet in November and December meeting.

Seconded by Commissioner Hopberg.

All in favor of canceling those two meetings.

Anyone opposed?

Nope.

Commission reports and announcements.

I have nothing to I want to say thank you to Erin.

Um yeah, she had told us at the food pantry that she was putting together a food drive.

And the past few months have been pretty pretty bleak, and so we went to her house to pick food up, and it was 34 banana boxes, yeah.

Banana boxes weigh in at about 30 to 40 pounds each.

Wow.

So it was huge.

No, they did a great job.

I was I was amazed.

It's the second one that I've done.

the food pantry that she was putting together a food drive and the past few months have been pretty pretty bleak and so we went to her house to pick food up and it was 34 banana boxes yeah banana boxes weigh in at about 30 to 40 pounds each wow so it was huge no they did a great job I was I was amazed it's the second one that I've done the first one was with Roosevelt um when you were doing your food drive James and um on behalf of the pantry so and these four kindergarten classes brought in I think about the same amount of food as our the four prior one so just four little kindergarten classes excited about popsicles to them yeah it teaches them so much it's good and we do make it a competition the winning class gets popsicles um and but one of our teachers said had had the greatest learning moment where she said because her class was not one of the winners and she said but the real winners in all of this is the people that got to eat it is a very important lesson for the food stocked it's taken well we picked it up on Saturday and we have people stalking ever since including Tuesday is our slowest day and we had people stalking two people in the morning two people in the afternoon and we almost got stuff stocked it's the first time in six months I've seen the shelves full that's amazing I'm so glad you share that thank you yes I I you know hosting a food drive I can't take a lot of credit because it's the easiest part of the job I really think it's just a week's worth of time to shuttle it yeah it's a whole food to my garage and then have Mo come pick it up with our big giant truck we have a one ton pickup and it was loaded.

Yeah my pleasure I hope to do it next year.

I'm putting together the moon festival for this Saturday it's 10 30 to 1230 at the main library so um please come and join us we'll have entertainment and thank you and free moon cakes so this Saturday 10 30 to 1230 main library great right I don't have anything nothing for me nothing for me oh I do I love the talk shoot.

No we did uh in between the our meetings uh we had our our backpack giveaway um we did uh uh 1700 backpacks at at our event and since then we've given away the other 300 to uh sal Leandro San Lorenzo Arroyo uh Cash Valley High Schools in our area the Ashland Center we gave them a bunch of backpacks you know our our drive is our backpacks it has a supply kit comes the one inch uh binder uh this year we gave out two thousand uh science kits to go with everything so yeah we had a real blast uh we had it at San Leandro High School uh we had 20 county agencies come uh cow fresh first five Kaiser I mean all those guys all came put up their booths and they were just swamped with people you gotta figure out 1700 backpacks that probably you know it was three four thousand people showed up you know with mom and dad and kids and probably more and they were the the resources part was just swamped with people and it was we had a blast you know it was it was a lot of fun it was um our our our department showed up which was nice department come put up a tent and and we've had out information to everybody about what we do and like that so it was a it was a lot of fun so that's it we're when we're already planning we're 11 months away from next year that countdown is always an endless cycle of fundraising and I mean you know it just uh a single event is close to 30 thousand dollars for that day wow you know so it you know for a small nonprofit to go out there and you know make a lot of like a lot of phone calls and a lot of handshakes and you know raising that money thank you you know but that was fun so that's my report thank you thank you you always have it at the high school parking lot it was the first year yeah you know I think it's a good location yeah yeah and the the uh Dr.

Mike Mike McLaughlin our our superintendent said you know we've already got it on the calendar we want you bad back next year yeah we want to do some more kid friendly stuff this year we're like we're gonna have the the the usual 20 agencies on that side but we're gonna do like face painting and we have two corner was there this year she's gonna have a big spot in the center and just uh try a little more kid friendly you know um for the kids to have something to do and all the parents got to go on the other side but there was a lot of fun of the kids had fun because a lot of them had those spinny wheels and they were winner prizes and things over there and so well yeah it was it was a great day.

Yeah, we had it all packed up and out of there by four o'clock like our promette said.

So the line for our spinning wheel was a block long.

Oh my god.

Oh yeah, yeah.

What were you giving away?

Just little trinkets.

Why would they want this stuff?

That's a number.

If I want it, it's important priceless.

Yes.

And uh we had a lot of uh a lot of our uh local agencies there.

Um you know, the people you know it's our our thought is you know, it's hard for our community to get to those agencies where we bring the agencies to our community and and present them so that people have access to them.

You know, and that's the hard part for a lot of people.

You know, some people don't even know they exist.

Yeah, you know what services are out there for 'em, you know, and what support they can get from the city and and our agencies.

So no.

Next year we we got a home, I think.

You know, I think we're gonna be, you know, uh at San Land Ohio for a while.

You know, so it makes it it makes it easier when you have a home.

I suppose so.

But we're also working on you know I'll let I'll let it out, but we're working on uh a building, getting our own building.

So that's why we haven't we haven't done much for the food drive and things like that because we've been so taken up with other stuff, you know, it it's hard to try to do everything and survive at the same time.

The last time we did a food drive with Aaron, we did what almost five thousand pounds, wasn't it?

Something like that.

The school brought in like seventeen hundred pounds, I think for your and then you got stuff from the community.

The rest.

So it was like we we close to five thousand pounds and we we delivered the mo, you know, and uh and that was a great but then we haven't done it we didn't do it last year because we're just so overwhelmed with everything else we're doing.

So I think we had weird weather last year too.

I don't know, right before Thanksgiving it was pouring for a while and then it stopped and then it came back.

I don't remember.

That's the end of my report.

Um I would entertain a motion to adjourn, or we could sit here and just yak all money.

I make a motion we had just second.

All in favor?

Uh uh anybody opposed.

We're officially closed at seven fifty three.

Thank you.

Thank you for the reporting.