For most of December, Kathryn Winogura’s Walnut Creek office resembled Fibber McGee’s closet: piled high with reams of colored construction paper, cases of hand sanitizer, 100 boxes of facial tissue, 50 rolls of paper towels, first-aid kits, scissors sets and 10 cases of children’s books.
The conference room down the hall at Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay overflowed as well, stuffed with junior basketball hoops and bouncy balls.
Now every last glue stick and coloring book is gone, given away to needy Oakland preschools as part of JFCS’ annual holiday giving program.
Winogura, who serves as JFCS’ volunteer coordinator, and her colleagues expanded the program this year to serve desperately underfunded childhood development centers in the Oakland Unified School District.
On Dec. 20, JFCS mental-health services staffers who work with the preschools brought over all of the donated supplies. And not a minute too soon.
“I’ve been in these classrooms,” said Winogura. “The sites have been given no budget, with underpaid and overworked teachers. There are few books on the shelf, some toys but pieces may be missing. [The schools] need a lot more.”
Among those answering the call were an East Bay mothers’ group and several more advantaged schools in the area: Gan Ilan Preschool in Lafayette, Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, the Iron Horse Mothers Club and Diablo Valley Montessori School.
“It’s wonderful for the staff and children,” said Lynne Rodezno, director of early childhood programs for the Oakland school district. “Money to buy materials is limited, so this helps.”
The 10 preschool sites benefiting from the donations are Martin Luther King, Tubman, International, Centro Main, Lockwood, Lakeview, Arroyo Viejo, Acorn Woodland, Alice Street and Emerson.
Now in its seventh year, the holiday giving program has always donated necessities such as kitchen supplies and children’s clothing to East Bay families in need. That’s still the case, with 127 low-income families enjoying a little holiday relief this year.
With the program’s expansion to local schools, donated items also are helping to stock classrooms that have taken an economic hit. Oakland schools, like public schools across the state, have been hammered by budget cuts in recent years. Rodezno is pessimistic about the prospects for the coming year.
“[Gov.-elect] Jerry Brown said educators should be sitting down when he presents the new budget,” she said. “I‘m ready to lie down at this point. Our programs help working parents, especially the working poor, and I worry if they don’t have these subsidized programs, they will either lose or quit their jobs.”
Fortunately, the schools do get some outside help. In addition to agencies like JFCS, private corporations “adopt” classrooms and pay for much-needed materials.
JFCS provides mental health services to the Oakland preschools though its parenting and youth department. Staff therapists and social workers help the children deal with what can be very tough circumstances.
“These are parts of Oakland that have violence, crime and lack of resources,” Winogura said. “[The children] have seen stuff and experienced stuff: addiction, drugs, [their parents’] incarceration. It was our case managers that said, the preschools are so undersupplied, let’s help them.”
Thus, on Dec. 20, after making a list and checking it twice, on-site case managers showed up at JFCS offices to go shopping. They loaded up their cars and took the supplies over to classrooms at the preschools.
The donations put smiles on the faces not only of teachers and students, but the donors and JFCS staffers as well.
“I think my favorite part of this is it’s a little economic redistribution project,” said Winogura. “I don’t know who’s happier, the receivers or the givers.”