Katy Dickinson

Chocolate Dinner for SMUM

This is also available on http://katysblog.wordpress.com/

On 17 October 2009, Saint Timothy's Episcopal Church ("St. Tim's") in Mountain View, California held a fund raising formal dinner and auction called "A Feast of All Things Chocolate" to benefit Santa Maria Urban Ministry or SMUM. Peggy Aoki was the head chef, assisted by Jennifer Ezell of St. Tim's. The cooks clearly had fun putting together the meal, especially the desserts. Both dark and white chocolate fountains were offered for dipping strawberries and cake. My favorite was the ganache in shortbread boats. St. Tim's youth served the dinner. The event was hosted by the Vestry (elected church leaders). We won certificates for two custom made cakes in the silent auction.

My husband John Plocher and I are on the SMUM Board of Directors and were asked to speak about SMUM and why we support it. Some of what we said:

Santa Maria Urban Ministry was founded as an outreach ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real in 1983, providing emergency food to the residents of San Jose's inner city. SMUM is a partner agency of the Second Harvest Food Bank, and has been designated to serve those in need within the eight Central San Jose zip codes. SMUM provides basic services to meet short-term needs, such as food, clothing and referral services, and by supporting long-term transformation through education, counseling and seasonal programs.

John and I have been helping mentor a dozen or so grade and middle school kids in the after school program for several years. During the school year, we focus on homework and computer skills. Last summer, we went on field trips to The Tech Museum of Innovation, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the San Francisco Zoo.

Due to a shortage of regular volunteers, the after school program is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we could be open every weekday if we had more adults available. Sometimes we have too many high school students earning service hour credits; what we need is adult volunteers. When we started, John's and my qualifications were minimal - a desire to help, a couple of hours a week and a willingness to learn Spanish from a first grader! Since then, the kids have stolen our hearts. Our Spanish is improving slowly.

SMUM now has an operating budget of about $200,000/year, of which less than 15% comes from the Episcopal Church. More than 100 families a week from come to the facility for basic foodstuffs to supplement what they are able to buy with food stamps. Dozens of homeless clients get hygiene packs and clothing as well.

Several dozen children are part of the preschool and after school homework/computer programs. Many Latino clients work seasonally in the central valley as fieldworkers and move to San Jose on the off season to work in the construction and service areas. Unfortunately, it is still somewhat the norm in that community for young teens to drop out of school to babysit younger siblings or to go out to work along with their fathers, brothers and uncles in the fields. SMUM's after school program has two goals:

• Every child will feel safe and cherished.
• Every child will be encouraged to complete high school.

A Feast of All Things Chocolate, Photos

SMUM, Photos

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Blog entry by Katy Dickinson, Also available on http://katysblog.wordpress.com/

Posted at 04:35PM Nov 18, 2009 by katysblog in Church  |