Catholic Charities of Northwest California Feeds the Hungry

When I was first asked to begin CalFresh outreach in Lake County, I felt ambivalent. Catholic Charities hadn’t provided consistent outreach there since May 2024, and I was returning more than a year later. I assumed that by now, the community had already found other ways to meet their needs. On top of that, the two-hour drive each way felt daunting.

However, upon my first visit to The Big Oak Peer Support Center, I was greeted with genuine enthusiasm. Community members expressed gratitude that Catholic Charities was back in the area. One of my very first clients told me she wanted to enroll in CalFresh. I opened my laptop and helped her complete an initial application right there on-site. As I guided her through the process, I couldn’t help but wonder how she had been managing without CalFresh support up to that point.

That experience opened my eyes to the impact our CalFresh grant can have in rural, isolated counties like Lake. As a registered CalFresh assister, I have access to updated program information, best practices for community engagement, and direct connections with the county’s Department of Human Services for case follow-up. The grant not only equips us with these tools but also requires Catholic Charities to bring services directly into Lake County—meeting clients where they already gather rather than expecting them to travel long distances, often without reliable transportation, to a county office.

I now visit The Big Oak Peer Support Center once a month. On my second visit, the same client happily shared that she had been approved for CalFresh and was finally receiving benefits. The speed and success of her application confirmed how critical our presence is in Lake County.

With this encouragement, I plan to expand our outreach by establishing an additional site on the other side of Clearlake. Thanks to the CalFresh grant, Catholic Charities of Northwest California is able to deliver food security, dignity, and hope—one community, one family, one visit at a time.