Of all the monthly gifts Puente could ask for, none are less glamorous than diapers. But for Léonie Walker, that may be part of the appeal. Puente’s resident “Diaper Donor” has single-handedly purchased diapers for Puente’s South Coast families for four years straight.

“It’s so much more fun to go out and buy diapers than it is to write a check,” enthuses Walker, who lives in Portola Valley with her spouse (and fellow Puente supporter) Dr. Kate O’Hanlan.

Walker makes one trip per month to Costco to purchase a load of diapers, which are delivered to Puente.

Diapers are expensive, even at Costco. Walker’s extraordinary generosity tallies $5,000 per year – that’s $20,000 for four years of diaper runs.  She also makes occasional financial contributions to Puente.

Walker and O’Hanlon have a long history of philanthropy. They have a donor advised fund at Horizons Foundation and give generously to organizations that focus on LGBT human rights and the rights of women and girls. Walker is a past member of the Board of Directors of Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York.

But the work they do for Puente feels different, says Walker.

“Puente feels closer and more connected to me than the organizations we support in different cities. We feel like we’re making a visceral difference,” she says.

They are, says Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel.

“Kate and Léonie are a steady presence in the lives of hundreds of children who will never know their names,” attests Lobel. “For Léonie, the diapers are a meditation, a belief that one simple gesture, repeated over and over again, can literally bring comfort to those she will never meet.”

Walker is a longtime friend of Lobel’s and she takes the time to endorse Puente at every opportunity – even in the checkout line when she’s buying diapers.

“Somebody will give me a look and say, ‘Do you run a daycare center?’ – and I get to tell them about Puente,” laughs Walker. “I’ve had people hand me a twenty and say, ‘This is for the organization.”

To make a donation to Puente, contact Kerry Lobel atklobel@mypuente.org or 650.879.1691 x144.

‘Ruth Shavel, volunteer’ is a permanent nametag for Shavel. So much so that when she started collecting donated items for Puente schoolchildren, she didn’t even need to be told how to sort everything.

You might even say she’s addicted to giving.

Shavel, a Redwood City resident, has been volunteering since she was a teenager, putting trays on donuts to serve to injured World War II veterans with the Red Cross in Palo Alto.

“You had to be 16 to volunteer but I wasn’t – I was 14. I had to stay in the kitchen because I wasn’t supposed to be there,” says Shavel.

Later on, Shavel’s local school district benefited from her efforts as a volunteer both inside her children’s classrooms and as volunteer coordinator for the entire school district. Then she spent 15 years volunteering with Samaritan House of San Mateo, feeding homeless people.

So when a friend introduced Shavel to Puente last year, it was only natural that Shavel immediately decided to launch an all-out donation campaign to help collect school supplies for local students. She approached her local gym, a Curves franchise, about gathering the supplies. And a few months later, she showed up in Pescadero with an entire trunkful of paper, pencils, water bottles, calculators, crayons, folders, reusable lunch bags and backpacks.

“I took the car and we filled the whole trunk. You couldn’t have gotten a toothpick in there. It was wonderful,” declares Shavel.

She hasn’t stopped there. Shavel now has another drive going for donated adult essentials – towels, soap bars, toothbrushes, jackets and the like, which Puente always keeps in stock to deliver to clients.

Puente needs your help this holiday season! Please see our wish list for children’s Christmas stocking-stuffers as well as gift bags for farm and nursery workers. New this year, Puente is raising $7,000 via a special campaign drive on Rally.org to give South Coast parents a gift card that will allow them to shop for their children.

“I think Puente is so far ahead of the other agencies I started with,” says Shavel. “They have a lot going on with a minimum amount of overhead. They have support up and down the coast. That’s the way to make a better life for these people who are here to help us.”

To learn more about donating to (and volunteering for) Puente, contact Abby Mohaupt at amohaupt@mypuente.org  or  click here. 

Puente’s commitment to providing fresh, local produce to the people who can least afford it has always been contingent on the cooperation of local farmers and ranchers – passionate food advocates who donate produce or sell it at Puente’s Pescadero Grown! Farmer’s Markets.

And nowhere has that vision found more bedrock support than with Potrero Nuevo Farm and Blue House Farm, two small farms a short drive from Puente’s headquarters in Pescadero.

This year, Potrero Nuevo Farm (which means “new pastures”) will donate a staggering 6,000 pounds of fresh-picked farm produce to Puente (and another 6,000 pounds to Catholic Worker House of Half Moon Bay) – food that Puente uses at program events and distributes to individual Program participants.

“They’re basically growing food so that other people can eat healthfully,” says Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel.

Bay Area philanthropists Bill Laven and Christine Pielenz founded Potrero Nuevo Farm in 2008 in the spirit of the social justice work they’d done together for many years. They wanted to feed struggling South Coast families and educate children about the value of farming. Today, the farm donates 85 percent of the food it grows.

“It’s great to feed people who can’t even afford food from Safeway sometimes,” says Laven.

Founded in 2005, Blue House Farm was at the vanguard of a group of small, organic cultivators who started tilling plots along South Coast at that time. Co-founders Ryan Casey and Ned Conwell heard about Puente’s efforts to locate affordable, nutritious food for local Mexican families – people who could often only afford processed foods, or couldn’t make the trip up to Half Moon Bay for fruit and vegetables.

Blue House Farm started distributing their weekly CSA boxes (Community-Supported Agriculture – a seasonal selection of produce) to Puente, which gave the boxes to local mothers who had completed a nutrition education course.

“I think giving people in Pescadero some broader food options is an important thing,” says Casey, who now owns Blue House Farm alone and runs it with members of his staff.

Blue House was among the first farms to participate in Pescadero Grown! when the markets were in a germination phase and Casey is one of Puente’s most stalwart supporters.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with Puente at the farmer’s market. I hope it continues,” he says.

Both Potrero Nuevo and Blue House Farm will be honored for their contributions to Puente and the South Coast communities at Puente’s annual volunteer appreciation event, to be held on October 21.