A hand up for children
E Center plans first fundraiser to supplement its budget for programs, staff
An organization that helps thousands of North State families – many of whom harvest food in rural counties – is looking for a little help to boost their programs. E Center, a Yuba City-based nonprofit that offers education, health, nutrition and parent involvement assistance to an estimated 3,500 families in several counties, announced its first
fundraising event: a country music concert, which they hope to find sponsors for.
The center operates Head Start programs in eight counties as well as the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, a U.S. Department of Agriculture food and nutrition service.
“The fundraiser will give us some seed money so we can work on our programs,” said Ricky Samayoa, the business and grants development director. “It’s our first fundraiser and we plan to honor some members of the community who have helped us during the event.”
The April concert at Southridge Estates in Sutter will feature acoustic music by national country star by Jimmie Allen, with local guest Kaylee Starr. Food will be catered by Marysville’s Silver Dollar Saloon. Any businesses, farm operators or individuals who are interested in sponsoring the entertainment should contact Amber Vieira by emailing avieira@ecenter. org or calling 411-9202.
Allen moved to Nashville in 2007 and experienced poverty and often lived out of his car before releasing his first album in 2018. Kaylee Starr is a Yuba City native and a disco, rock, country and pop artist.
Samayoa said they’re looking for sponsors to underwrite the affair.
“The economic effect we have in the community and the money we spend on staff is considerable,” he said. “We operate in eight different counties and Head Start is the biggest program.”
He said they employ as many as 550 people in the spring peak season, with 34 child care centers spread throughout the nonprofit’s service area.
“The Head Start centers follow the school year and there’s a summer program for children whose families work in agricultural – we’re mostly in rural areas to support those who are working in the fields,” he said. “We do provide a benefit to farmers in the area in supporting their kids.”
Samayoa said the organization’s roots run deep in morthern California, as it started 44 years ago as a workforce development agency in Ukiah.
“We have a number of grants, and all the grants focus around our mission of building healthy communities through education, employment and environmental awareness,” he said. “We take a holistic approach with our programs with high-quality, affordable child care as well as working directly with families, parents or foster parents.”
He said a big part of the program’s success comes from working with other groups that have parallel or similar missions.
“We’ve created networks with a number of agencies in the area, like the the county offices of education, nutritional programs. We provide a
lot of mental health support to our families and to different agencies,” he said.
“We opened a temporary child care center to help people impacted by the Camp Fire,” he said. “In December, a Chico-based foundation helped to open the center in Gridley – we were able to get all the licenses, permits and teachers in to help.”
He said the E Center is working to be proactive to address the needs in the community that will likely arise in the future.
“The E Center is income-based, but we understand the importance of high-quality, affordable child care. We want to open up more centers to help those families in need,” he said. “We’re working with Adventist Health because they want to make sure there are good child care centers available to people who work for them, as well as their patients. We see the casino being built in Yuba County, which will bring more jobs, as another need for child care and the E Center wants to work with them as well.”
Getting nutritious food to families and those in need is another priority they’re tackling.
“We also see a need to engage the community in a larger conversation on food insecurity,” he said. “We want to connect with the county health departments, food banks and farmers to create a food hub that can provide nutritional foods for seniors with fixed incomes. Not only food, but food that meets their specific needs, like if they have a chronic condition.”