A recent grant from the Dr. Abram I. and Sylvia S. Chasens Endowment Fund via Inland Empire Community Foundation has given The Joslyn Center an opportunity to move forward with even greater ease. 

The longtime and revered nonprofit, which has been actively enhancing the well-being of 50+ adults in the area through its pioneering services and programs, will use the grant funding to cover operating expenses. 

It has given Greg Murphy, Director of Development and Marketing at The Joslyn Center, an opportunity to take stock of several key growth areas that emerged over the last year. One of them found the center winding down its Meals on Wheels program. 

“It was somewhat redundant to the county program,” Murphy said. “We looked at the overhead and the number of people served, and we believed that the clients were better off with the county program. The food is prepared fresh and is a better benefit to the clients in the program.”  

In addition, the board took note of member feedback and invested in three outdoor pickleball courts, two of which were underwritten by donors, and the third from the board. 

“That’s been in play, pun intended, since October,” Murphy said of the courts. “We’ve been having a really good spring, and people are still out there playing in the sun, when it’s not too hot yet.” 

Further back, in March 2025, Penny’s Pantry, which sprang to life in 2011, providing fresh produce and non-perishable food to thousands of low-income seniors each year, merged with the center’s farmer’s market to become the Joslyn Community Food Bank. 

These re-aligned efforts better provide food to those who have challenges purchasing enough of it to avoid hunger. The food bank is open Fridays from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. 

Another thing the nonprofit has leaned into over the past couple of years was to install solar panels on its roofs. 

“It you think about a 27,000 square foot facility here, we have 15 functioning HPAC units, and it takes a lot of expense to keep those things operating during summertime,” Murphy said. “The solar panels have helped us out a lot.” 

Meanwhile, fresh off a recent volunteer’s luncheon in early April, Murphy says volunteer opportunities abound and directs those interested in getting involved with the organization to visit its website and submit their information. 

Looking ahead, mark your calendars. The Center will host both a Mother’s and Father’s Day luncheon, as well as a Fourth of July barbecue. 

“We just had a big fundraising event in early April,” Murphy noted of the gathering—another fundraising event takes place at the beginning of the season. “These events are important and we’re always looking to attract new volunteers, new members, and new donors.” 

Those big events also shine the light on the center’s various programs—from adult bereavement, the Better Brain Balance class, book clubs, and caregiver support groups to table tennis, bingo, American Mah Jong, guitar lessons, and even meditation classes.  

The Joslyn Wellness Center is yet another standout. It has been praised for its holistic approach and the variety of modalities it offers. The center focuses on aging, memory, and mobility, and uses thought, memory, exercise programs, and the strength of community to help improve life experiences. 

Now a nationally recognized entity, the Wellness Center’s unique approach to wellness among older adults is valued. It is also the first of its kind to offer free bilingual counseling services to adults in need.

This story originally appeared in the Desert Sun, 2026.

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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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The desert’s regional food bank is getting a boost in support thanks to a recent grant from

Debbie Espinosa, President & CEO of FIND Food Bank, says those resources are greatly assisting them with broad and general uses. She also notes the nonprofit’s extraordinary reach in the region. 

“We go from the windmills on I-10 all the way to the California/Arizona border, and Blythe, then up to Anza, Joshua Tree, and 29 Palms, and then everything in between that,” she said. “We have a pretty expansive service area.” 

That helps, especially when it comes to the importance of equitability for the distribution food in the region. 

“We help fill, stock, and supply the local food pantries and food banks,” Espinosa said. “That’s our primary role. We are the regional food bank, and we ensure that the distributing agencies are place-based locations and in the smaller community areas, and that they are stocked and supplied.” 

To that end, FIND Food Bank is the only regional food bank serving eastern Riverside and southern San Bernardino Counties in southern California. In 2024, the nonprofit distributed 28 million pounds of food to 120,000 people on average every month at 175 distribution sites. 

Its varied community-based partners and programs include food pantries, soup kitchens, after-school and summer care, senior centers, faith-based organizations, and homeless shelters. 

Additionally, more than 25 mobile pantries venture out to fill in any food gaps. 

FIND Food Bank sprang to life in the early 1980s and remains one of the main cornerstones of the food security system in the region. Espinosa doesn’t take her role lightly.

“We feel the weight of that on our shoulders every day,” she said. “We want to make sure that we can take care of everybody—all the non-profit organizations that we support—as best we can.” 

A recent, and surely major, milestone is the nonprofit’s major expansion efforts, which created ample additional space to store food and distribute it more expeditiously.  

With its new 45,000-square-foot warehouse—its other facility was 38,000 square feet—Espinosa is thrilled that the nonprofit is close to 100,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space. 

There was another perk to the new outpost, however. 

“When we envisioned this new building, we realized that with a lot of the warehousing and logistics companies coming closer to the Coachella Valley—the I-10 is really starting to develop out through Beaumont, Cabazon, and the Desert Hot Springs area—we have the capability of doing a workforce development program on operations and logistics and inventory management systems,” she added. “We do that so people can learn and gain professional development skills as part of our training center. And they can help the community at the same time.” 

Upon completing the program, those individuals would have found knowledge and new skills to “build out resumes and apply to other jobs,” Espinosa said. “They would have a better shot to end food insecurity.”

Ending hunger comes in three different stages, she added. “There’s ending hunger for today, which is our food distribution programs. Then there’s the food distribution programs, and, of course, a myriad of food distribution programs within that category.” 

Outreach services help people become established greater independent by signing them up on CalFresh, and connecting and interconnecting them with other resources that many food-insecure people can experience, such as utility assistance, housing assistance, and Medi-Cal registration. 

“We help people navigate through all that,” Espinosa said. 

“Ending hunger for a lifetime” programs also come into play. Here, the nonprofit addresses the root causes of hunger and focuses on four of the contributing factors to why people are in the food line.  

“There’s a multitude of factors, but the four that we can make a significant difference in is workforce development, educational attainment, financial literacy, and community engagement,” Espinosa said.  

When asked what she appreciates most about being part of the area’s revered nonprofit, the CEO was candid. 

“What I love most is that there’s so much community kindness here,” she said. “I’ve lived all over the United States. I went to school in the Midwest. I was up in the San Francisco Bay Area. I lived over in the coastal areas of Southern California. There’s something really special about the people in this community, and I feel it in such a different way than the other areas that I’ve lived in. 

“People here are concerned, and there’s a love to make sure people are taken care of and not left behind,” she added. “Another reason I love it is because I’ve been given an opportunity to go out and interact with the community in such a strong way, and to help feed people who are in need.” 

Learn more about FIND Food Bank by visiting FINDfoodbank.org. 

This story originally appeared in the Desert Sun, August 2025.

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Vic Ide and Geoff Corbin at the Food Bank

Through community engagement, outreach, food distribution, and a variety of other services, Cathedral City Senior Center is revered for helping improve the quality of life for seniors 55+ living in Cathedral City and the surrounding communities.

But ambitious souls running things behind the scenes are quick to note it’s more than a senior center.

“It’s a focus and it’s what we do best,” says Cathedral City Senior Center Chief Executive Officer Geoff Corbin. “There’s much more going on at the center than people may realize. Cathedral City doesn’t have a Parks and Recreation Department, nor a viable community center, so we’ve become the de facto community center for our city.”

“We serve so much more than seniors,” he adds. “We serve young Hispanic families. About 40 percent of our membership is now Spanish speaking and we have active bilingual programming. There’s something for everyone here.”

Corbin is quick to note that the center is currently one of the only Braille-approved facilities in the region, being the first of its kind in the Valley after the closing of the Braille Institute in Rancho Mirage.

The center’s beating heart, however, lies in its strong focus on seniors, which makes the recent Build Coachella Valley Fund (BCVF) grant it received through Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF) even more significant.

Corbin and Chief Operating Officer Vic Ide say the organization can use those resources to create new opportunities for the center’s ever-expanding efforts to combat hunger and food insecurities via The Jim Scheibel and Tim Wood Food and Humanity Center.

Launched by the center in 1998 as The Food Bank, the entity now provides more than 10,000 pounds of food weekly to more than 300 low-income, unhoused, underserved, or food insecure families. Distributions take place every Monday morning.

Ide points out that The Food Bank has grown considerably in a short amount of time partly because of a strategic pivot that was made to specifically reach out to Cathedral City’s bilingual Spanish-speaking community. It involved the hiring of an outreach coordinator who went out into the community to garner information and make connections.

The coordinator now sits regularly at about 25 different locations around the Cathedral City area and speaks with Spanish-speaking residents, primarily low-income residents.

“It’s all about building trust, and listening to what people need,” Ide says. “If the coordinator realizes people are food insecure, she will direct them to our food bank. In many ways, the food bank has grown considerably mainly because of this intentional outreach initiative.”

The recent grant will also now allow the organization to deliver food into the community where people don’t always have easy access to transportation. Anyone can donate! IECF donors and (DAF) Donor Advised Fundholders, please contact us at giving@iegives.org to talk about ways you can support seniors where you live.

“We have a lot of residents in low-income housing units and mobile home parks that are not able to get to the Senior Center,” Ide says. “We have a team of people here now who pack up grocery bags individually for people, because we know what their diet is, and deliver them to their home every Monday morning.”

With growth comes other shifts and perhaps, more options. Ide notes that the center can now purchase additional food at Fine Food Bank, particularly food staples, because of the expanding need. The organization also receives donations from Trader Joe’s, Grocery Outlet, Vons, Starbucks, and other companies in the area.

“Seniors are in danger of becoming food insecure, and for a number of reasons, they can lack of mobility,” Ide says. “Maybe they’re widowed and not being able to afford food. Maybe there’s isolation. And, as we found out from COVID, isolation can affect anyone.”

Moving forward, he says the center will continue to invest in enhancing mind and body connection, and activities to keep seniors active to build networks of friendship.

“We call it food, fun, and friendship,” Ide notes. “That’s what we do here. And that’s good for everyone.”

https://theccsc.org/ or (760) 321-1548

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Student volunteers back boxes at FIND Food Bank

Ending hunger today, tomorrow and for a lifetime is a bold endeavor. But that’s not deterring FIND Food Bank.

Founded by Wayne Johnson in 1983 in Cathedral City, FIND, which stands for Food in Need of Distribution, now serves about 5,000 square miles of eastern Riverside and southern San Bernardino counties. Its primary goal remains as strong as ever: “to relieve hunger, the causes of hunger, and the problems associated with hunger through awareness, education, and mobilization of resources and community involvement.”

“Our commitment is to always make sure there’s enough food for everybody to eat in our Valley, so that they don’t have to wonder where their next meal is,” says FIND Food Bank President and CEO Debbie Espinosa. “We want to give them that strong foundation to utilize and really tackle the root causes of hunger, and to be able to bring them out of the line.”

FIND’s food is comprised of donations, purchased goods, or federal government programs. The organization secures food donations at different points in the supply chain—statewide and local growers to wholesalers, manufacturers, and retail grocers. The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), for instance, is a federal program of the USDA, which helps food banks distribute diverse, pre-packed foods sourced from different people and places.

Espinoza says it’s all part of the organization’s unique approach to end hunger. Period.

To be sure, the organization’s tireless efforts have not gone unnoticed. It now boasts an extensive list of programs and outreach to better serve the community.

The Senior Feeding Program, for instance, is a commodity supplemental food program, that assists 60+ seniors with nutritious USDA commodity dietary supplemental foods. FIND Food Bank is one of 10 food banks in the program providing these commodities to improve the health of seniors.

Other programs stand out.

Because children comprise 40 percent of those at risk of hunger in FIND’s service area, the organization partners with schools and community organizations to provide healthy food. In fact, more than 84 percent of Coachella Valley public school students qualify for free and reduced-price school meals.

On that note, the nonprofit’s Kid’s Summer Market is a 10-week long program geared to filling meal gaps for students on summer vacation.

Debbie Espinoza

“In the summertime, we experience a strong increase in childhood food insecurity because they are not in schools where they’re receiving their school lunches and it impacts the entire family,” Espinoza says. “We partner with many of the school districts in order to ensure that it’s one-stop shopping. The school districts are doing the food distributions where they’re doing the meals, like the school lunches through the summer programs, but in addition to that, we’re doing the food distribution for the entire family to make sure they’re taking care of not just at lunch but at breakfast and at dinners, too throughout the summer.”

Elsewhere, FIND’s outreach team works one-on-one with clients, helping them apply for food benefits, rental and utility assistance, unemployment, SSI, and other financial resources. The goal is to offer people proper tools for self-sufficiency.

Recently, FIND Food Bank received a grant from The Todd Barajas Legacy Fund, from Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF). The fund was established back 2016 for broad and general charitable uses and purposes. Espinosa says the grant buoyed the nonprofit’s general operating dollars, which supports all its programming.

“Our programmatic framework centers on ending hunger for today, tomorrow, and for a lifetime,” says Espinoza, noting that grant helped the nonprofit’s emergency food distribution sites for people that need food immediately, either because they’re running out of food or they’re experiencing food insecurity.

“It’s our mobile pantry programs,” she points out. “It’s our 150 distribution sites through supplying and supporting other non-profit organizations that have food pantries themselves, so they can focus on the people and the client services as opposed to sourcing for food to be able to put into their pantries.”

FIND Food Bank takes care of that for those entities, stocking their pantries. Additionally, the organization has about 44 community mobile markets, featuring food bank trucks that venture out to dense, high-food-insecurity areas.”

“We will bring the food directly into that community because they may or may not have a non-profit organization that has a food pantry there,” Espinoza says. “We want to make sure they have equitable access to healthy and nutritious foods throughout the Coachella Valley and the Desert region.”

Not surprisingly, the nonprofit has reached new highs over the last year.

“One of our biggest milestones was something we started this work in 2019 before COVID,” Espinoza shares. “We were very excited about launching the Ending Hunger for a Lifetime programmatic framework to really complete that 360-degree wraparound services. Then COVID happened and we had to take a little bit of a hiatus on launching those programs.

“But in the last year, we’ve really started to see the outcomes of that work in the initial first two years of investments,” she adds. “We’re getting amazing stories from people that are tapping into not just ending hunger for lifetime but utilizing all three of those elements to create a really food-secure platform.”

Learn more about FIND Food Bank at findfoodbank.org.

This story originally appeared in the Desert Sun, May 2024.

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