SMUM Summary 2011 and 2012

Thanks to Operations Manager Alfonso Mendez for these summary numbers of SMUM’s remarkable support for the local community during 2011 and 2012:

                                    2011      2012 (partial year)

Emergency food boxes                 273       105
Households                         6,789     3,785
Individuals                       15,115     9,838
Children                           6,139     4,026
Food distributed  (in Pounds)    316,170   215,786    
   Clothes (Individuals)           1,500     2,233
   Studio  (Individual Kids)          17        20  
   ABC Playtime  (Individual Kids)    12        24
   Bicycles given away                 6         0
   Bicycles fixed                      0         4

Thanks to Lewis Pollard for the information that the VITA program in 2012 created 192 tax returns and requested $338,000 in refunds for the local community. Lewis is the leader of the VITA program, recently recognized with this certificate of appreciation for ten years of dedicated service, from the US Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue service.

VITA Team Prepares Taxes Free for Inner City San Jose

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) volunteers provide FREE Income Tax Preparation Assistance to low-Income, elderly, disabled and limited English speaking people. SMUM is proud to host the VITA service again.  Times: Wednesday 6-8 pm, Saturday 9 am – 2 pm through 14 April 2012.

Image by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2012

Congratulations Rev. Lawrence Robles

Congratulations and thanks to Rev. Lawrence Robles for his many years of dedicated service as Executive Director of SMUM. On 7 December 2011, the Board of SMUM gave a community and volunteer party for to honor Lawrence for his work.  SMUM is proud of Lawrence but we will miss him when he moves to a new role as Rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church, in Salinas, California.  Volunteers from ABC Playtime, Studio, VITA, the Food Warehouse and all of SMUM’s many programs turned out to talk and snack and eat one last tres leches cake with Lawrence.

During the interim period until the new SMUM Executive Director is in place, please direct questions to Alfonso Mendez in the SMUM office (Email: (Enable Javascript to see the email address), Phone: 408-292-3314) or to the SMUM Board Convener, Rev. David Breuer (Email: (Enable Javascript to see the email address), Phone: 408-354-2195)

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

2010 SMUM Service Measures

Thanks to you!

With the support of SMUM’s generous donors and amazing volunteers, in 2010 SMUM was able to serve:

• 6,701 households
• 14,159 individuals
• 5,476 children

Selected SMUM 2010 program measures:

• VITA helped over 100 families with their income tax returns.  Over $200K was returned to the local economy from the households that e-file with the VITA program at SMUM.
• ABC Playtime served 12 preschool students and their families.
• Studio served 29 grade school students and their families.
• Over 800 backpacks were distributed at the end of the summer to grade school, middle school, and high school students.
• 347,020 pounds of food was donated to SMUM for community distribution (valued at about $677 thousand).
• 290 Emergency Food Boxes (for those outside of the SMUM service area)
• 43 bicycles were given away. 52 bikes were repaired.
• Community Closet provided clothes, bedding, toys and other used items to to over 200 households per month.
• 834 Christmas Gifts were distributed in 2010 (about the same as in 2009).

Thanks to SMUM Treasurer Joanna Shreve, Executive Director Rev. Lawrence Robles, and Office Manager Alfonso Mendez for their help in compiling these numbers.