Assistance from Community Services Agency of Mountain View and Los Altos.
Serving the less fortunate in both Los Altos as well as Mountain View, the Community Services Agency provides assistance. While anyone can contact the non-profit for help, a focus is on senior citizens in the area. Other clients are the underemployed as well as working poor.
The Food and Nutrition Center from the non-profit distributes over a ton of groceries each day, five days per week. This service was created in an effort to help qualifying low-income Santa Clara County residents stretch their budgets and avoid hunger.
The goals of this program are accomplished by providing needed grocery items or meals, including fresh dairy and produce items, nutrition education, preparation workshops, and recipes. This service removes some of the strain on limited budgets. What it also does is allows struggling families to use the cash saved for other expenses, such as emergency car repairs, unplanned doctor visits, school supplies, rent, transportation to work, or utilities.
In order to provide this needed service, CSA of Mountain View and Los Altos depends on donations from the general public. All goods are appreciated. However items most heavily needed to stock the Food and Nutrition Center include oatmeal, boxed cereal, pop-top canned fruits, vegetables, meat, sugar, condiments, salad dressings, oil and other non-perishable foods.
Additionally, Village Harvest is a key partner and this non-profit will harvest the fruit from trees in someone's yard and deliver it to the Center. The agency can only accept unopened non-perishables from the public.
CSA Senior Lunch and Nutrition can help reduce the hunger and food insecurity that is often experienced by low-income seniors that live on a fixed income. It will also provide them with the opportunity to get together and socialize at a meal site at the Mountain View California Senior Center.
The location will have freshly prepared hot lunches, plus health and nutrition education sessions. These are available to anyone over the age of 60. Funding for this senior meal service program is provided by the County of Santa Clara and the City of Mountain View.
Senior Case Management from Community Services Agency of Mountain View and Los Altos is to help seniors remain independent and living in their own homes. It will be key to people avoiding premature institutionalization and/or unnecessary hospitalization. The program’s social workers and case managers perform in-home assessments of the needs requested. Based on that, the non-profit will also organize counseling and referrals to other service organizations (such as the United Way), as needed.
CSA of Mountain View and Los Altos will also partner with El Camino Hospital to provide intensive case management by a specialized social worker. This also addresses medical needs, and this is provided by a registered nurse for seniors with chronic health conditions. The Community Outreach volunteers are also available to provide transportation and shopping assistance. In addition to the obvious benefits for the elderly in northern California who participate in the Case Management Program, there are also Federal government and State of California Healthcare Programs that also benefit from reduced spending. The Local Senior Centers are at Mountain View Senior Center, 266 Escuela Ave., Mountain View, CA as 94040 as well as Los Altos Senior Center, 97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos, California 94022
Alpha Omega Homeless Services is where the housing solutions originate from. This was created as a partnership between Santa Clara County, CSA, a number of local churches, and various other nonprofit service providers. They will work together to provide outreach, financial aid to stop evictions, case management services, and access to shelter and low income housing programs. It will be offered by CSA to assist those individuals and families who find themselves unhoused.
One time Emergency Financial Aid, including loans, is available for rent. There is also Utility Bill Assistance. CSA of Mountain View and Los Altos offers one-time financial assistance for rent or utility payments. The program also provides vouchers to the working poor that are used to obtain some other basic life necessities, such as transportation or work clothing. Other support includes free dental, vision, and prescription drug assistance. This is for uninsured children.
Seasonal programs range from Back-to-School backpack, school supply, and shoe voucher distribution to Christmas help. Partners on these are Intuit Corporation and also the Los Altos Assistance League. There may be everything from school supplies to vouchers. During holiday, there are a number of community food and toy drives. They may have free gifts or holiday food bags to individuals and families on a low income.
The main office is at 204 Stierlin Rd., Mountain View, California 94043. Dial 650.968.0836 for intake.
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