Ecumenical Hunger Program

​EHP's mission is two-fold: to sustain our neighbors through immediate crises and to help them regain stability and independence.

EHP's mission is to assist local families and individuals who are experiencing economic and personal hardship. EHP provides food, clothing, household essentials, support, and advocacy to our neighbors to sustain them through immediate crises and to help them regain stability and independence.

Our goal and mission are to alleviate hunger and homelessness by providing all of our services, free of charge, with dignity and respect for all individuals and families. Our ultimate goal is to provide families with the tools and resources that they need to become self sufficient and to thrive in this community.

Increase and ensure EHP's quality and supply of available essential foods to be used for daily, monthly, and holiday distribution for all the families/individuals whom EHP serves.

Improve family stability and health by reducing short and long-term food insecurity for 600 families whom EHP staff identify as high risk.

Continue to expand our education and outreach on nutrition and health.

Continue to provide supplemental programs to families receiving services as listed below:

Counseling Program
Monday Night Meal Program
Personal Support
Furniture, Clothing, and Household Essentials
Client Advocacy
Children's Resource Center (CRC) Programs
• Back to School
• Holiday Happiness
• Crisis Referrals
• Child Care Placements
• Celebrating Success
• Academic Mentoring
• Health and Enrichment

*All safety net programs are offered year round and funding will be used to support these programs for one full fiscal year.

Throughout the past 42 years, EHP has remained a community based organization meaning that it has grown and adjusted based upon community needs and trends and has only survived with community support without government funding. Although a well established organization, EHP has held onto its “grass roots" mentality by continuing to provide personal and customized safety net services to each individual and family. These aspects make the organization and programs provided unique and essential in the community it supports.

EHP has consistently worked with local community organizations learning from them, providing assistance to and receiving assistance from them in order to provide the highest quality of services available to our families. Since its inception, EHP has retained the reputation of being a sustainable organization that operates with integrity, honesty, flexibility and accountability.

EHP has been in the safety net business since it was founded in 1975 by Miriam Nixon Hope and a group from Church Women United who channeled surplus and donated food to neighborhood pantries where it was then distributed to families in need. EHP was incorporated in 1978 as a non-profit organization. Under the direction of Nevida Butler, EHP began providing direct services to families in need in 1981 and it has grown to become the largest direct emergency food provider in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. EHP also began addressing other critical needs in the community, distributing clothing, furniture, and household essentials, and providing case management, referrals and other support to those in need in our service area. However, EHP's program focus has always been on essential resources for survival, primarily food.

EHP's dedicated staff, board and volunteers have remained alert and aware of all issues facing local families and for over thirty years, they have strived to remain educated and knowledgeable in order to provide innovative solutions to the age old problems of hunger and poverty.
EHP currently has 12.5 full time equivalent staff, 11 board members and over 200 volunteers who donate thousands of hours per year.

Because of its longstanding reputation, EHP has been able to create and retain relationships with donors for stable individual funding, volunteers who allow us to leverage staff resources in order to provide services to over 17,000 individuals and with community partners such as the Second Harvest Food Bank in order to provide the mass amount of essential safety net resources to families and individuals in need

EHP is the largest direct service organization providing emergency food assistance in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. The primary purpose of this program is to ensure that EHP is able to continue alleviating immediate and long-term hunger needs, while helping families and individuals improve nutrition and health.
EHP currently provides an array of emergency and monthly food assistance to over 2000 households annually. During FY 2014/2015 EHP distributed over 8000 emergency and supplemental food boxes, in addition to co-sponsoring a weekly dinner with St. Vincent de Paul. As economic conditions have worsened, demand over the last year has increased from families who are having to turn to EHP more frequently. This increase in requests has occurred at the same time that the Second Harvest Food Bank has experienced increased demand from all their partner agencies, thus reducing the amount and quality of food available for distribution. EHP is able to provide support year round to all families in need of assistance.

EHP has a strong financial base and the support of thousands of donors, corporations, congregations and foundations. The organization is sustainable because of a stable and innovative development department and also because of its longstanding reputation for being a premier safety net providing organization. The general operating budget is able to sustain all safety net programs.