California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

Turf
Filler ad

Residents Must Unite to Combat Local Poverty

Last Saturday, a partnership between the Rotary Club of Hayward, Target and Hayward salon Kitty Kelley Hair Design, provided 90 children from low-income families with a $100 Target gift card to buy clothes and school supplies, a $20 gift card for shoes to any store of their choice, courtesy of the Rotary, and a gift certificate for a free haircut.

Created as a way to assist children and their families due to a growing need in the community, many members from the Rotary Club of Hayward, Target sales associates, college students and Hayward residents helped make this back-to-school package possible. The focal point of the partnership was to aid residents affected by poverty and financial hardships.

Poverty is a persistent issue for Hayward residents and mirrors growing numbers across the United States. Over 30 percent of children in the United States live in households that are below the poverty level, defined by the federal government as an annual combined income of $22,113 for a family of four.

In the city of Hayward, child poverty has been an increasing struggle, one that has swelled since the 2007 recession. According to Hayward councilman Mark Salinas, over 60 percent of children enrolled in the Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) qualify for free or reduced lunches, receiving two of their three meals a day from school, exemplifying the state of poverty in California and nationwide.

At The Pioneer, we encourage our community members to work together to combat and consequently overturn poverty issues in their neighborhoods by direct involvement and formidable support with city politicians, outreach programs and local schools. Residents need to be proactive about poverty, which continues to afflict the city.

For example, “Let’s Do Lunch Hayward…and Breakfast too” is a community-based program which was created to alleviate hunger and poverty issues in the city of Hayward by providing free or reduced meals to qualifying students during the summer when they are not in school.

The Hayward Promise Neighborhood (HPN) initiative works through a collaboration of several community partners, such as the HUSD, City of Hayward, First 5 Alameda County and La Familia Counseling Services among others to create community resources and improve the educational system within the city, with hopes to increase academic scores and consequently give children a means for upward mobility.

Other neighboring communities like the Silicon Valley have partnered with community organizations such as the Sacred Heart Community Service, which just this year provided 2,300 backpacks filled with school supplies to children grades K-12 from low-income families. According to their website, nearly 40 percent of the donations for this annual giveaway are from residents.

Community outreach programs such as “Let’s Do Lunch Hayward …and Breakfast too” and the HPN are great examples of how citizens can work together to affect real change in their communities because they bring a diverse group of creative and determined minds together.

Furthermore, if companies like eBay, Google and Apple, just to name a few, could consistently donate to programs such as these, then they would be giving back to the same community that supports them as consumers.

In July 2012, San Francisco Business Times named Google Inc. Bay Area’s top philanthropist of 2011. Google Inc. donated $23 million to nonprofits in the Bay Area, according to San Francisco Business Times.

As a community, we should not keep waiting for a bigger entity to solve the problems of the poor. The people that participated at the children’s shopping and haircut spree were Hayward residents who wanted to give back – we applaud residents who are willing to take it upon themselves to enact change.

The number of people living in poverty continues to increase while the gap between those earning the most and the least continues to grow. Residents can be a change agent in their communities and provide their services to battle a scourge that affects their neighbors, teachers, friends and families.

We firmly believe we can be the change we wish to see in our world, our cities and in our backyards

More to Discover
Activate Search
California State University East Bay
Residents Must Unite to Combat Local Poverty