A beautiful example of the generosity of Sonoma Valley... in August of 2023 two local sisters (one from 4-H and one from FFA at SVHS) and the purchasers of their County Fair pigs came together at FISH to donate the meat to help feed those in need in our community.

Looking back over the services provided by FISH in 2023, I am reminded of the title of a video put together by the Catalyst Fund to highlight the work of nonprofits during COVID. It was called The Power of We. To me, our FISH organization embodies the power of a group of people working together to help our neighbors.

We the volunteers. We the supporters. We the donors. We the contributors. FISH
continues to be powered by a giving community dedicated to extending a helping hand to neighbors in need. This Annual Report illustrates what can be accomplished when “We” work together. We have accomplished mighty things.

In friendship,

Sandy
Sandy Piotter, Executive Director

Our 2023 statistics reflect both the breadth and depth of services we provide to the Sonoma Valley community. Looking at trends, we see the growing need for assistance in many of our programs. 

While some services can now be requested directly through our website, our dedicated Dispatchers remain essential to our mission, receiving and responding to thousands of requests each year in English and Spanish.

FOOD ASSISTANCE

1,514 families were served at our food pantry in 2023, including 3,265 adults and 1,519 children. This reflects the critical and growing need for food assistance in Sonoma Valley.  We continue to innovate at our pantry, finding ways to provide more fresh food items and experimenting with ways to increase access.

FISH volunteers also provided 486 deliveries of groceries to homebound residents in 2023, as well as 500 holiday food baskets (special thanks to the dozens of bell ringers and hundreds of donors who support this program!)

RENT ASSISTANCE

Our rental assistance program peaked in 2020 at 828 households, with pandemic grants including federal CARES Act monies. Post-pandemic, we are returning to a "new normal" but the need for help with rent is growing.  FISH was able to provide 329 households in Sonoma Valley with emergency assistance (up to 50% of a month's rent or deposit) in 2023.

Among the local families for whom rent assistance made a big difference in 2023:

UTILITIES ASSISTANCE

241 households in Sonoma Valley received help with their utility bills (primarily PG&E, but also water, sewer, cell phone and internet services). Our volunteers also direct those in need to programs that provide ongoing discounts for low-income residents.

CLOTHING AND HOUSEWARES

Valley residents made more than 2,500 visits to the Clothing Closet to select clothing and households goods at no charge. In addition, 27 new baby layettes were distributed to welcome the Valley's newest residents.

TRANSPORTATION

995 rides were provided to medical appointments (locally and out of town), including more than 300 for dialysis. The number of rides provided has more than doubled in the past two years as we move out of the pandemic. We now average almost four rides every weekday of the year, but are limited on some days by the number of volunteer drivers available.

In addition, 82 residents received help with gasoline for out-of-town medical appointments.

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT LOANS

276 residents of Sonoma Valley were able to borrow durable medical equipment (such as walkers, rollators, and shower chairs) that has been donated by their neighbors. The steady growth in this program is supported by strong community connections and by the expansion of our storage shed at FISH Central.

Several members of the "Gentlemen’s Lunch Group" stopped by over the holidays to visit FISH Central - and brought Sandy a generous donation to help provide food and other services to our community.

As you can see, the number of Sonoma Valley neighbors that we are serving continues to grow. Thankfully, we have seen some growth in our revenues as well. In 2023, FISH revenue totaled almost $562,000, up more than 17% over the previous year. 

Grants are something we actively seek out, and on occasion we are delighted to receive unsolicited grants. We are very thankful for all of our grants and foundation supporters. 

It is individual donations, however, that remain the largest driver of FISH revenue. In 2023, over 900 generous individuals contributed to FISH. The average donation was $378, with 42% in the $1 - $99 range. It is this breadth of community support that continues to make our services possible.

Excludes investment income.

Harder to quantify, but critically important, are the many non-monetary donations to FISH of items such as food, clothing, and medical equipment. Almost daily, we receive donated items from local residents. In addition, FISH is consistently supported by more than 50 community partners that provide food for our pantry and other goods and services, as well as helping hands for various seasonal programs.  From scouts to schools, from postal workers to local businesses, we are grateful to be part of a such generous community.

In 2023, our expenditures totaled $528,671.  Because FISH is an all-volunteer organization, we can make a big impact with the dollars we receive. In 2023, 83% of our expenditures went to client services (including dispatch and facility operating costs).  Improvements and upgrades at "FISH Central" (home to our food pantry, clothing room, and medical equipment storage) made up 10% of total expenditures.  The remaining expenditures, about 7%, were for general administrative costs such as insurance and banking, community outreach, and volunteer recognition.

2023 marked our 52nd year as an all-volunteer organization in Sonoma Valley. Without the time, talents, and dedication of this workforce, there would be no FISH. Many of our volunteers serve for years or even decades, but eventually even the most dedicated must "retire" from FISH.  We happily welcomed more than two dozen new volunteers in 2023, which brought our ranks to more than 150 strong. We took time to gather at an ice cream social in September. Please join us in welcoming our newest volunteers, the FISH "Class of 2023":

Eva Aceves – rent team

Julianna Anderson – dispenser

George Arabian – driver and food pick-up substitute

David Brey – driver

Gail Brodkey – driver

Geri Brown – admin support

Maria Campbell – volunteer coordinator

Annie Cassidy – rent team

Evan Corcorran – dispatcher, driver

Janet Engelbrecht – clothing room

Jesus Fernandez – driver

John Frye – driver

Bill Hoban – dispenser & photographer

Wade Hutchins - driver

Arlene Ison – driver

Kusum Jain – driver

Lois McVeigh – ride finder

Duane Percox – packer

Patricia Poncia – driver

Beth Records – food donations

Mark Scott – driver

Lauren Scott – food room buyer & more

Elizabeth Shea – packer

Joe Yiakis – driver

We also built a new community partnership in 2023 with Becoming Independent, which recently came to fruition with the addition of BI volunteers coming to our food pantry weekly to pack bags of produce for distribution. We are excited to have these great workers kick off our Volunteer Class of 2024.

FISH is always in need of volunteers, and currently we are particularly on the lookout for help with driving to medical appointments, dispatching, food donation pick-up, and clothing room assistance. Know someone who might be a good fit? Details can be found on our Volunteer page.

Through the leadership of our Board of Directors, whose focus is on organizational planning, policies and fiscal issues, and our Steering Committee, which coordinates and implements our programs and services, we continued to work on several capacity-building projects in 2023 that will help FISH to better meet the needs of our community.

Physical improvements at FISH Central continued in 2023.  We replaced the leaky roofs on our Food Pantry and Clothing Room buildings, including the reinstallation of the existing solar panels, thanks to a grant from the Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund and Community Foundation of Sonoma County.  We repaved and re-striped our parking lot to increase accessibility, and expanded our storage shed for medical equipment. We also added a new refrigerator to our Food Pantry, which helps us to provide more fresh foods as part of our food assistance program.  

Communications with our clients, volunteers, and community took several big steps forward in 2023. In late July, we launched our new website at fishsonoma.org with many improved features. We are now seeing 1,500 visitors to the site each month. We have increased the number of subscribers to our monthly e-newsletter by 50%, and our social media presence also continues to grow, with our facebook and instagram each approaching 1,000 "followers".

In 2023, we worked hard to fulfill our mission of lending a helping hand to our neighbors in need by providing critical safety net services. In providing these services, we strive to embody our core values of Trust, Inclusion, Responsiveness, and the Power of Volunteers. As we move at full speed into 2024, we embrace the spirit of this community that makes us all Friends In Sonoma Helping.