Cooking Up Healthy Meals with Ceres Project
In ancient Rome, Ceres was the goddess of agriculture and offered blessings to farmers and their annual harvests, ensuring communities had enough to eat. Today in Sonoma County, Ceres Community Project is known for something similar: blessing those in need with hearty...
Catching Up With Our Sonoma Valley Cohort
When our cohort of six Sonoma Valley nonprofit organizations met for the first time in February, their primary focus was to identify the ways they could strengthen and support their own and each other’s missions. Soon after that first capacity building meeting,...
Sonoma County Resilience Fund activates for LNU Lightning Complex Fires
Since inception in 2017, we have supported local disaster recovery efforts through grants nearing $10 million. Community Foundation Sonoma County (CFSC) first launched the Sonoma County Resilience Fund in the wake of the 2017 fires, with a mission to help support our...
Sheltering Unhoused People During Shelter in Place – COTS
When news of the coronavirus first hit the U.S., the staff at COTS (Committee On The Shelterless) stepped into action to ensure the unhoused population they serve would be protected. COTS operates the 112 bed Mary Isaak Center Shelter in Petaluma, and staff knew that...
Taking Care of Mental Health in Times of Crisis – NAMI Sonoma County
One of the first contacts many have with NAMI Sonoma County is through the NAMI Warmline, a non-crisis helpline that operates Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 5 PM (call/text 866-960-6264). Although the line is not staffed 24 hours a day, NAMI’s trained staff and volunteers...
Announcing: COVID-19 Competitive Grants Program
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every aspect of our lives and created widespread and long-term challenges in Sonoma County communities and throughout the world. As with previous disasters, the impact is not distributed evenly. The Latinx population has been...
Over 8 million meals since March: the Redwood Empire Food Bank
Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB) is no stranger to supporting communities through disasters. In recent years, they’ve responded to their fair share: Sonoma and Mendocino Complex Fires, Russian River floods of 2019, the Kincade Fire, and more. Now they have a new crisis...
211 – A Lifeline in Times of Emergency
Since United Way of the Wine Country took over operations of the 211 information and referral line just over a year ago, many Sonoma County residents have come to know the service as an emergency hotline. When in crisis, locals can call or text 211, or visit the 211...
Bridging Racial and Economic Divides in the North County: Corazón Healdsburg
Since 2011, Corazón Healdsburg has worked to bridge the racial and economic divide in the northern reaches of Sonoma County. Their work has made a big impact in the Latinx community, through adult education programs, financial counseling, health outreach, a bilingual...
La Luz Microloan Program
When Cliff Casolla bought Marshall Auto Body in Glen Ellen nearly six years ago, he could have never predicted the bumps he’d pass over during his first years in business. Fires, black outs, evacuations, closures because of coronavirus; he maneuvered it all with small...
Supporting Student’s Mental Health
Established in 1993 by Sonoma State Professor Mark Doolittle, Support Our Students Community Counseling (SOS) continues to draw on the original mission of supporting the wellbeing of Sonoma County’s youth. “Mark created the organization with the idea that we’d keep...
Feeding the Medically Fragile: Food For Thought
The staff at Food For Thought in Forestville began implementing sanitation plans as soon as they got word of the pandemic in early March. But because the organization relies heavily on volunteers to help get food on the tables of those in need—and because the bulk of...
UndocuFund: Supporting Our Community in Times of Crisis
When shelter in place orders were instated, *Elena’s hours at the coffee shop where she’s worked for twelve years were cut from 40 to 16 hours per week. A parent with two children at home (ages 4 and 22), Elena’s job helps keep the bills paid; if she isn’t working,...
Feeding Seniors in Sonoma County: Meals on Wheels
For more than 50 years Sonoma County’s Council on Aging has provided valuable support to the region’s older adults. Of the many services they offer, the Meals on Wheels delivery program is an essential part of keeping one of our most vulnerable population safe and...
Giving Back During COVID-19: An Interview With Hanford ARC
Interview by Dani Burlison. Photo: Hanford ARC Vice President and CEO Mark Cederborg with founder Doug Hanford, by Caitlin Childs Sonoma County based Hanford Applied Restoration and Conservation (Hanford ARC) is a general engineering and landscape contractor...