Kids who have grown up with Nevida Butler call her grandma, says super-volunteer Donna Dunwoody of Woodside. “She has brought them through so much. Everyone knows her and relates to her.”
Over 25 years, that’s a lot of children — and grownups too — who have been warmed and helped by Ms. Butler through the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto, where she has been executive director since 1981.
With personal energy, Nevida Butler has fueled the growth of EHP from a small food pantry and clothes closet in 1981 to today’s community haven. In 2005, EHP served more than 16,000 poor and troubled people with everything from food and bedding for families, to toys and tutoring for kids.
Figures for services delivered in 2005 are impressive. EHP, mostly with the aid of volunteers, distributed 5,100 food baskets, served 7,900 Monday Night Meals, received 11,400 visits to the Clothes Closet, and gave away 1,700 pieces of furniture. It provided $1.3 million in in-kind donations to clients. Volunteers provided 11,900 hours of service.
“People in need can rely on EHP; it’s always the place to go when you need food or clothing or furniture,” says admirer Rose Jacobs Gibson, San Mateo County supervisor and former councilwoman in East Palo Alto.
“The organization is Nevida,” says Ms. Dunwoody. “She has a huge heart, yet understands when to be strong and not to give. She understands the idea that handouts aren’t everything.”
But EHP is heading into uncharted waters; Ms. Butler is retiring next spring, and the board of directors is looking for a successor. This will be a hard task, all acknowledge.
At EHP, this giving comes with a personal touch that can mean so much. As Ms. Butler puts it, “We’re here to make people feel good about themselves.”
An acre of giving
On a random Tuesday afternoon, tents shade rows of scrumptious vegetables in the parking lot of Ecumenical Hunger Program at 2411 Pulgas Avenue in East Palo Alto.Some 400 families take advantage of the monthly food distribution put on by Second Harvest Food Bank at EHP. People load peppers and carrots, eggplant and greens into shopping carts and bags to take home.
“We have a lot of seniors, a lot of families,” says Ms. Butler on a tour of EHP’s headquarters and warehouse. “How thankful they are just to get a bag of veggies.”
Nearby, a black Mercedes is packed to the roof with food packages. “Volunteers will take the leftovers to shut-ins,” she says. “Everybody out here is a volunteer. We depend on volunteers from the community.”
EHP is still developing the acre it acquired in 2002 to expand its services. Next to the offices is a former “Sunset House.” Built as a model cabin for a Sunset magazine celebration in 2002, it was donated to EHP, fixed up by Peninsula Habitat for Humanity, and refinished inside by Ms Dunwoody.
Ms. Dunwoody started with a $100 donation from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, raised several hundred dollars more, and put in close to $16,000 worth of volunteer work, with the help of Rebuilding Together. Ms. Butler loves the bamboo floors.
The little Sunset House is waiting for Christmas, when it is decorated and staffed by Girls Scouts and volunteers as a Santa Claus Shop. “It’s a mini-winter wonderland for kids while their families wait in line for food,” says Assistant Director Maleah Choi.
The rest of the year, children can use the little house for homework, tutoring, and fun things, Ms. Butler adds.
“God has been good to us here,” she says.
Across the parking lot, the warehouse is crammed with donated clothes and bedding, dishes and cooking utensils, mattresses and furniture, chests of drawers, washing machines, refrigerators and gas stoves (not electric — many homes don’t have 220 volts, Ms. Butler warns).
The building also has a large walk-in freezer and refrigerator. Nearby the TAP (Technical Access Point) holds computers installed by Plugged In, where people can come for job-hunting or to use the Internet. This room was also fixed up and decorated by the redoubtable Ms. Dunwoody.
EHP has a new program called an “Appointment Closet,” Ms. Butler says. People can make an appointment to come in and shop for what they need.
Ms. Butler talks joyously of other programs at EHP, like back to school. “This year we gave 300 backpacks filled with school supplies,” she says.
This season EHP is gearing up for the holidays. It expects to give away at Thanksgiving food for three days, to 500 or 700 families, and even more for Christmas.
So EHP is seeking food donations: hams, turkeys and canned goods. Two-pound boxes of sugar, and especially rice. “Rice is the universal food,” Ms. Butler says. A lot of people — Tongans especially — don’t eat beans.”
EHP is also collecting clothes and toys and other giveaways through mid-December. “Bring it here, clean and in good condition,” says Ms. Butler.
And if there is demand, EHP may stay open after 5 p.m. to accommodate people. Ms. Butler says, “Need doesn’t work from 9 to 5.”
Grim childhood
Ms. Butler knows what her clients are going through; she’s been there, and often worse.Born on a farm in Arkansas to an abusive father, Nevida began picking cotton when she was 5. “It was terrible, terrible,” she recalls. “We were slaves.”
Later she went to live with her uncle and aunt. She no longer picked cotton; she picked peas and field corn, and fed pigs, and milked cows. And when a cow got lost in the woods, Nevida remembers, “We couldn’t come home until we found her.”
By 1973, Nevida had made her way, via Bakersfield, to East Palo Alto. She had married an abusive husband, and run away with her three children.
For most of the 1970s, Ms. Butler was a community worker for the Red Cross, based on Middlefield Road in North Fair Oaks. By 1979, she was service center coordinator, and had joined the board of a fledgling nonprofit in East Palo Alto called Emergency Hunger Program.
In 1981, Ms. Butler took the job of executive director at EHP, and it has grown ever since. Her children still live in the Bay Area, and have given her grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
For Supervisor Jacobs Gibson, EHP is a wonderful operation, and Ms. Butler deserves full credit. She admires Ms. Butler’s “tenacity, and total commitment to the community and its people in need.”
Bob Cool, longtime owner of the restaurant, Late for the Train, and a member of the EHP board for 18 years, admires the positive way Ms. Butler deals with desperate people. “She helps people redeem their dignity,” he says. “They feel it’s OK to ask for help. Instead of feeling ashamed, they come away with a sense of empowerment.
“That’s a really amazing woman.”
Ms. Butler has won numerous awards over the years for her work with the needy, including a Golden Acorn Award from the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce and a Tall Trees Award from Palo Alto. She was elected to the San Mateo County Women’s Hall of Fame in 1989, and served one term on the Palo Alto City Council starting in 1990.
“Nevida has been the breath of life for EHP,” says board president Judy Kincaid. “Her spirit and faith and charity have completely formed the organization, and the way it is there for client families.”
The board remains committed to the vision Ms. Butler has created, said Ms. Kincaid: “Caring for families in need with care and compassion. We want to continue that philosophy and mission.”
A board subcommittee is looking for a successor through Craigslist and “any way that’s free,” Ms. Kincaid says. So far there are 10 applicants.
Meanwhile, EHP is planning a Nevida Butler Garden at EHP headquarters. Named bricks start at $150 for a single brick with four lines, $250 for a double brick and eight lines of text, Ms. Kincaid says.
Meanwhile, Ms. Butler hasn’t really planned her future. She plans to keep volunteering and hopes to stay in East Palo Alto — if she can afford it. “I love this community. The people here are my family,” she says. “I’ve loved every moment of it.”
HOLIDAY FUND
The Ecumenical Hunger Program benefits from the Almanac’s Holiday Fund. Its address is 2411 Pulgas Ave., East Palo Alto, CA 94011. For more information, call Nevida Butler or Maleah Choi at 323-7811; or go to ehpcares.org.
