Todd Barajas Legacy Fund grant feeds into Martha's Village & Kitchen

For nearly 35 years Martha's Village & Kitchen has held its doors open to serve homeless individuals hot meals. In its early days, it benefited only from a parish kitchen, a $5 donation and a small group of dedicated volunteers.

Today, the Indio-based nonprofit is a powerhouse in the Coachella Valley. It offers life-changing programs that address the needs of the impoverished and homeless while also offering solutions to challenging circumstances. One of its primary goals is to help people become self-sufficient and productive citizens who feel as if their lives have been restored.

"When people come into our program, it's assumed that we want you to be self-sufficient," says Sam Hollenbeck, president and CEO of Martha's Village & Kitchen. "We want you to be what you need to be once you leave here to live on your own. We want you to be able to live in society. If you come into our program, we help you do a lot of things."

Such as finding any kind of benefits those individuals may be eligible for, Hollenbeck says. "We help you find housing. We will help you figure out where you can get documents like a driver's license or a Social Security card or whatever you might need to make sure that you have everything in place to be employable and ready to go on your own."

It's just several of the nonprofit's unique components in an ongoing mission to address both the causes and symptoms of homelessness. Other notable programs include children's services, emergency assistance and housing, health care services and case management.

In addition to daily food services, the organization offers a cooling center and public showers.

Recently, Martha's Village & Kitchen received a grant from the Todd Barajas Legacy Fund through the Inland Empire Community Foundation. Portions of the grant will be used for a new vehicle at the organization's Indio office.

"The vehicles are very important for different purposes, whether we do outreach in the community or through our Homeless Recuperative Care Program," Hollenbeck says. "If you're ever heard the term 'curb dumping,' that's what used to happen if a homeless person in the past was sick or injured and had to go to the hospital. They would be admitted, but at a certain point, the hospital would run out of funding, and they would literally take the patient and kind of dump them back out on the streets."

Recuperative care sprang from brainstorming sessions with local organizations, such as Inland Empire Health Plan and Kaiser. Today, such hospital patients are referred to Martha's Village & Kitchen, which has several hospital rooms.

"It allows these people to come in here and continue with rehab and to heal until they're truly well enough to, hopefully, worst case, be back on the street, or best case, while they're here working with us as we care for them, we can roll them into our mainstream program and help prevent them from ever going back on the streets."

When asked what most locals may not know about Martha's Village & Kitchen, Hollenbeck is candid.

"It's exactly that — we want people to know more," he says. "We have literally had discussions about changing the corporate name because when people hear Martha's Village & Kitchen, what they're left with is Martha's Kitchen. That's what we're thought of as, a kitchen. We're so much more."

While the nonprofit served more than 300,000 meals last year, including the public, and its own residents, an even bigger part centers around its programs. Hollenbeck immediately points to the organization's child development center, for instance, which services children up to 5 years of age.

Additionally, the nonprofit can house up to 55 students per day, thanks to a program run by the county and state.

Meanwhile, donations, planned giving, sponsored food drives and other dynamic components filter into the eclectic mix here, making this particular village a mighty one.

Learn more about Martha's Village & Kitchen at marthasvillage.org.

The Inland Empire Community Foundation works to strengthen Inland Southern California through philanthropy. Visit iegives.org.