At a time when millions of Americans and many Valley locals are being affected by food insecurity and the disruption of SNAP benefits, two change agents have stepped forward to help.
Jack Fitzsimmons and Walter Gendell, who established a donor advised fund at Inland Empire Community Foundation several years ago to help manage and focus their charitable giving, recently provided additional resources to Cathedral City Senior Center.
Their grant arrives at a critical time and will greatly benefit the challenges the food bank faces during major shifts in government bureaucracy.
“Our little Food Bank was already busy,” said Geoff Corbin, CEO of Cathedral City Senior Center. “But when the SNAP/CalFresh delays were first announced, the numbers [of people coming in] jumped fast. We went from already-high weekly counts of about 450 to 555 individuals served, just from the news of the delays. And this is before the holiday surge even starts.”
He added that the center will see a continuation of that trend. 
“Walter and Jack were so moved by an email we sent to people, letting them know they could come to the food bank if they are impacted by the pause of SNAP benefits,” added Vic Ide, the center’s COO. “The email let people know that we had food, social services, and mental health resources if they needed help or somebody to talk to.
“Or even if they just needed to get out of the house,” he said. “We’ve got activities here that help with being isolated. And sure enough, after that message, we fed 555 on a Monday, which is over 100 more people than we normally see.”
The giving couple didn’t belabor the decision to help.
“When we heard that 37,000 Coachella Valley residents, mostly children, seniors and working families, were going to be impacted by the delay or suspension of SNAP benefits, we knew we had to do something to address this crisis,” Jack and Walter said. “The disruption to food assistance—leaving vulnerable families without support—is an acute moral inflection point for us personally, both as citizens and people of faith. Impoverished children and seniors and families living paycheck to paycheck going hungry in an area as wealthy as the Coachella Valley felt shameful and morally wrong. We realized reaching out to the Cathedral City Senior Center and making a direct contribution from our DAF at IECF to their food bank was the best way to get food into the hands of those that needed it most. It was truly the least we could do.”
The Cathedral City Senior Center’s food bank, known as the Jim Scheibel and Tim Wood Food and Humanity Center, has become a beacon of hope and provision in the region. Scheibel and Wood have long been recognized for their commitment to creating food security in the desert. Their generosity brightly shines through.
The center partners with FIND Food Bank, Von’s, Trader Joe’s, Grocery Outlet, Crumbl Cookie, Starbucks, McDonalds, Krispy Kreme, Eddie V’s, and other local businesses to offer the widest kinds of selections of foods—from fresh and name brands to shelf-stable and other nutritious offerings.
The food bank offers a “dignified shopping experience,” in fact, a kind of “shop-for-what-you-need” experience akin to that of traditional grocery stores. Locals have also embraced the monthly food drives, which arrive via the Dinners with Patsi fundraising events, which benefit local charities and restaurants.
The center accepts food and monetary donations year-round.
Corbin and Ide are hopeful about the months ahead but remain on alert. Even when SNAP benefits begin to flow again, uncertainty seems omnipresent.
“That’s the big issue,” Corbin said. “What we’re dealing with here is huge increases [in need] due to the uncertainty of it all. And the uncertainty is what stays behind for a while.
“We’ve been dealing with families torn apart by ICE raids,” he added. “We’re having to give our rapid-relief mini grants out so that some families can find ease.”
He notes one example of a family of five children, ranging from 5 to 17 years of age, whose parents were recently taken out of a Coachella field by ICE agents with no notice.
“A woman affiliated with the center, who has three of her own children, took those children in for the couple of weeks until they got to where their parents wound up,” Corbin said. “And where they landed was in southern Mexico. But had lived here for 30 years. And I won’t tell you the harrowing story of the two weeks the parents spent imprisoned, poorly nourished, and mistreated.”
That’s just one reason why Corbin and Ide both feel that Fitzsimmons’ and Gendell’s recent gift felt so “serendipitous.”
As for the road ahead in 2026, Corbin is to the point: “We’re going as fast as we can, and we’re still barely scratching the surface of what the need is here in mid-Valley.”
Learn more at cathedralcenter.org.
This story originally appeared in the Desert Sun, December 2025.
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