CEO Update from Greg Kepferle
September 2022
Dear Friends,
I hope you and your family have enjoyed a safe, healthy and restful summer.
Even as the pace of work seems to ease a bit over the summer, we continue to work to change lives for good.
The number of families seeking help continues to climb and our response has expanded. More families are seeking help with food and rent as inflation eats away at their earnings, and as the pandemic continues. And parents look for safe places for their children to learn and recreate over the summer.
In response, our food distribution is able to reach more people thanks to parish and community volunteers pitching in. Our CORAL summer school programs have been serving more than 1,300 students at eight school sites and a community center. Thanks to SJ Learns, we were able to hire 20 high school students as Activity Assistants to help the elementary school students with enhanced learning over the summer. Hopefully once the high school students graduate they will join us as after-school instructors. Our services in Gilroy continue to expand and are poised for growth with a new Strong Communities grant from the state. And our SCC Prepared workshops help communities prepare for natural disasters such as pandemics, wildfires, floods, heat emergencies and earthquakes.
Catholic Charities is committed to always being there for our communities and families who need us during difficult times. We need your help to respond to this need. During this difficult economic time, your gift of any size makes a difference especially to low-income seniors on fixed income and families in poverty who are most affected by rising prices of food, gas, and rent.
Thank you. And God bless you for helping change lives for good.
All the best,
Gregory R. Kepferle, CEO
