Jovenes De Antaño seeking community support amid funding uncertainty

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About 40 seniors share daily meals at the Pauline Valdivia Memorial Community Center in Hollister. Over half of them stay a little longer to play bingo. Observing the environment of companionship and laughter, one would not know the organization providing those services faces an uncertain future as it expects to lose two of its major funding sources.

Lupe Amaya, 79, has been going to the center for six years to be around other people.

“We get older and most of us are retired and we don’t have anywhere to go, nothing to do” she said. “This is good— to come here and hear other people, laugh and talk and play bingo.”

Amaya said she doesn’t mind if another organization takes over the program and the meals are offered at a different site as long as the services remain. However, she acknowledged that transportation can be a challenge for some seniors as some are picked up and dropped off by Jovenes De Antano while others use County Express, the area’s public transportation. 

Jóvenes De Antaño, a nonprofit, has been providing and delivering lunch to seniors in San Benito County through funding from the Seniors Council of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. This year’s available funding is $337,000. Historically, Jovenes De Antaño has been the lone bidder for the contract, but this year San Jose-based nonprofit Martha’s Kitchen also applied for the funds.

Jóvenes De Antaño Executive Director Danny Barrera Jr. said he believed his application would not be selected by the Seniors Council because Martha’s Kitchen is “much larger and has more resources.”

“We can’t compete with the large influx of resources Martha’s Kitchen has and Jovenes has to make do with what we have in front of us,” he said.

Jovenes De Antano said that in addition to potentially losing the  food services contract, the organization  was notified by the San Benito County Local Transportation Authority (LTA) that its evaluation panel will recommend its board to award a contract for specialized transportation to Illinois-based Transdev Services. According to a news release, it has received funds for 45 years from LTA to provide local seniors and people with disabilities with transportation inside and outside the county.

Barrera said the two sources of funding account for more than half of the organization’s revenue, which includes other one-time grants. He said without the LTA funding, he would need to terminate four employees. For the food program, he said 11 employees would be impacted. 

The potential loss of both funds threatens the existence of Jóvenes De Antaño, Barrera said. 

“Jovenes is here,” Barrera said. “We want to be here. We want to serve our seniors. Our staff love our seniors. We do need local dollars to be sustained long term.” 

He said the organization, which was founded in 1975 and lost its long-time leader in 2022, is pursuing corporate and local donations, and corporate grants to offer limited services. He said Jovenes would use such funds to keep a driver for in-county transportation services and to provide lunches.

“I’m hopeful we can get a lot of support from the community once they hear what’s happening and what’s needed,” he said.

Martha’s Kitchen Executive Director Bill Lee said his intent is to increase the services currently provided by Jovenes. He said Martha’s Kitchen is committed to serve all seniors on the waitlist, provide meals all week by giving seniors two frozen meals on Fridays for the weekend, and partner with other organizations to offer other services such as legal assistance and music.

“Seniors have a tendency to be shut in at home and isolated and people need socialization, interaction with other people,” Lee said. “They need resources and education.”

Martha’s Kitchen has been providing food for a variety of organizations in San Benito County since Lee, a Hollister resident, took over in 2019.

He said he’d like to continue to use the community center but if that’s not possible he identified a potential site on San Benito Street in downtown Hollister. 

The Local Transportation Authority board is expected to award the funds on March 20. The Seniors Council board is expected to make a preliminary decision the same day and a final decision on April 17. 

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