A local nonprofit recently secured emergency funds from the city of Buellton to keep its Meals on Wheels program for seniors from going belly up.
In an April 24 letter to the city, Pam Gnekow, CEO of SYV Community Outreach, reported a deficit of $110,000 during 2023, due to expenses out of the organization’s control and a dry spell in grant funding.
“All we’re trying to do is make sure we stay open,” Gnekow said at the Buellton City Council’s April 29 meeting. “We’re looking for a sustainable way to make sure that we can keep the doors open, keep the people fed.”
The program currently delivers meals to more than 260 Buellton seniors a day, according to Gnekow’s letter. Gnekow asked the City Council to consider setting aside $250,000 annually for SYV Community Outreach, either as an allocation, a loan with a low payment arrangement, or as funds toward purchasing the Buellton Senior Thrift Store property—owned by the nonprofit—which has been appraised at $1.2 million.
At its April 29 hearing, the City Council discussed the possibility of all three options and potentially cementing the funding with a five-year commitment, which City Manager Scott Wolfe advised against.
“I hate to be the Grinch on this, but from my perspective here where I’m sitting, I’m really hesitant to make a commitment of five years,” Wolfe said. “We don’t make a commitment of five years on anything. We do it on a biennial budget basis.”
As part of its 2023-24 budget, the city already allocated $140,000 to SYV Community Outreach in July, 2023. Wolfe suggested that the City Council declare an additional $110,000 as “emergency support” for the nonprofit and form an ad hoc committee to reevaluate the organization’s needs in subsequent years.
Wolfe said that declaring the extra funds as emergency support would help secure future grant funding from other groups in the future, rather than create an assumption that SYV Community Outreach is guaranteed the $250,000 each year.
Councilmember David Silva expressed support for Wolfe’s proposal because it left room to increase funds for the nonprofit rather than lock in the total at $250,000 or below.
“[It’s] operating in a vacuum to think that somehow need, hunger, populations—everything—is going to maintain at the same level, and I think we keep learning over and over again that need doesn’t decrease year over year, we’re just seeing an increase of it,” Silva said. “[It’s] really critical to keep us aware of that need and … grounded in what the community needs. I think sometimes we get blinders, because if you don’t need the assistance, why would you know what’s offered out there.”
The $110,000 emergency support motion passed 5-0 with a special caveat that if the Buellton Senior Thrift Store should ever go up for sale, the city has the right of first refusal.
