Please restore the 42nd Avenue Community Cupboard.

1) It increases our community capacity to look out for each other.
2) It strengthens the safety net without costing the government a dime.
3) It is a constant public example of the civic duty of caring for each other.
4) It taps the vast resource of people’s willingness to help each other.
5) It creates the social capital of neighbors helping neighbors.

The local Community Cupboard Program is sponsored by TimeBank Santa Cruz. Such sharing-economy programs exist quite successfully worldwide. We’re hoping the City of Capitola will see the benefit of the Cupboard Program and support it wholeheartedly.

One in five children in our County is hungry. Forty percent of college students are hungry. California has the highest poverty rate in the nation, given our high cost of living. All the great hunger efforts underway are not a drop in the bucket, given the scale of the crisis.

We propose that we restore the Cupboard and monitor its operation closely for three months to sort through any potential concerns. We additionally propose that we pilot a Community Cupboard Program in Capitola in collaboration with the City in which we install at least five Cupboards at various locations - a church and a business as well as other nonprofits and individual residences. We would similarly monitor their operation.

Please sign to indicate your support for the Community Cupboard Program.