Peace Pantry, Community Garden, and Community Closet
Empowerment Through Action
Peace Pantry
Hilsdale Stands Together
Hillsdale recognizes a dramatic rise in the cost of living in our community. The cost of rent, coupled with the high cost of living in San Mateo, has put significant financial pressure on many of our Hillsdale students and families. Hillsdale believes strongly in rallying our community to support our families, so we opened our Peace Pantry in May of 2019 serving just over 25 families through a small Pantry stocked with donated items and goods purchased with donated funds. Since then, the need has grown significantly, and we are now serving nearly 150 families.
HHS Peace Pantry partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB) in January 2020, and they provide us with 600 boxes of food (three boxes per family) every week that include fruits/vegetables, non-perishable food, eggs, dairy, and meat. Thanks to our community support and donations we purchase a bag of groceries and essential items through our partnership with Mi Rancho Market to supplement what we receive from SHFB. Lastly, our friends at Transfiguration Church and their dedicated baking team provide families with homemade baked bread, cookies, and desserts every Friday.
Community Closet
The cost of living in San Mateo is incredibly high, a fact that impacts many of our Hillsdale families. In August 2023, we opened the Hillsdale Community Closet as an additional level of support to community members in need. The Closet offers seasonal clothing and essential items at no cost to eligible students and their families. What sets us apart is the generosity of our Hillsdale community members who, through their donations, become essential to the Closet. It's a collaborative effort where compassion drives action, and every gently used or new item contributes to a cycle of support. Together, we are not just providing clothing and essentials; we are building a foundation of care and solidarity that resonates through every donated item! We look forward to adding community closets at each of the high schools in San Mateo and Foster City.
Our Community Garden
What better way to use a patch of vacant ground on campus than turning it into a productive community garden? Brett Stevenson, Dean of Students at Hillsdale High School, and his team broke ground on the long-awaited garden project in April 2022 and have since transformed the space beyond recognition.
The generosity of the Hillsdale community has been the driving force behind the project. Donations raised through Hillsdale's Peace Pantry have funded the initial building of the garden and its subsequent upkeep.
The main purpose of the garden is to provide additional produce for the Hillsdale Peace Pantry, our emergency food drive-thru that serves around 150 school families every week. Now we can add organic fruits and vegetables harvested from our very own garden to the food boxes.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our Peace Pantry so we can continue to offer support through our Hillsdale Peace Pantry, Community Closet, and Community Garden.
Tax-deductible donations can be made through Empowerment Through Action, a 501c3. If your employer does matching gifts, you can double your impact.
For $50 a month you can support a Hillsdale family with groceries and essential items from Mi Rancho Market every other week.
A pledge of $600 will support a family for the next twelve months.
A donation of any amount will directly support a Hillsdale family experiencing food insecurity.
Any size donation is appreciated.
Second Harvest and USDA Disclaimer
In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, and reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, and American Sign Language) should contact the responsible State or local Agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice an TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339 . To file a program discrimination complaint, a complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, which can be obtained online, at https://www.ascr.usda.gov/sites/default/files/USDA-OASCR%20P-ComplaintForm-0508-0002-508-11-28- 17Fax2Mail.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by: mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights 1400 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or fax: (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; email: program.intake@usda.gov.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider.