By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Eight nonprofit agencies are asking the Benicia Human Services Board for grants, but each was warned Monday that the panel itself may lose up to one-third of the funds it would have distributed.

Board members will meet March 28 to assess how they graded the applicants, and will meet again April 11 to formulate their recommendations to the City Council for the awarding of those grants.

The panel heard from representatives of the Children’s Nurturing Project, Cooking Matters, Benicia Community Gardens, Emani Incorporated, Catholic Social Services, the Community Action Council, Families in Transition and Special Friends.

Children’s Nurturing Project, a Fairfield-based organization that presents workshops in Benicia schools to combat assaults on children, is asking for $5,000; it operates its program with a total budget of $13,075, Executive Director Debbi Davis said.

The agency’s workshops help children from preschool to fifth grade who could be vulnerable to stranger abduction, unwanted touching or bullying, she said.

“It’s a big bang for the buck,” Davis told the panel, because the counseling lasts a lifetime. The Human Services grant covers all of the Benicia program, and if it’s reduced the agency would have to reduce the number of children it reaches, Davis said.

Cooking Matters is seeking $40,000 to underwrite its entire budget to present a nutritional education program at Liberty High School in partnership with the Health Educational Council.

Executive Director Norma Lisenko told the panel, “It’s a pilot program.” She reminded the panel how childhood obesity has become so great a national concern that First Lady Michelle Obama has made it the focus of campaign.

Lisenko said the program would give students at the high school — some of whom are themselves young parents — a way to learn how to make healthy food choices, prepare nutritious foods for themselves and others, and have a chance to eat what they’ve cooked.

Benicia Community Gardens is asking for $4,800 to pay the consulting services stipend for Meg Grumio, the professional master gardener who teaches residents how to grow crops both at the city’s two community gardens and at their homes.

The nonprofit group uses other sources for its construction and operation expenses, both at the community gardens and at public schools, said the agency’s representative, Marilyn Bardet.

Through the gardens and with Grumio’s guidance, residents learn about health, nutrition, sustainable urban gardening and land use, and do so in a social setting, Bardet said.

Through that knowledge, local food supplies can be made more secure, particularly in emergencies, she said.

“One only has to look at Japan,” Bardet said, referring to the magnitude 9 earthquake and resulting tsunami that has interrupted food supplies in that country.

Emani Incorporated of Vallejo operates House of Namaste in Benicia, where women who are impacted by substance abuse, mental health disabilities and possible life-threatening illnesses can receive help.

Executive Director June Cummings is asking for $15,000 for the agency’s work in Benicia. Its total budget is $280,000 from a variety of other sources, she said.

“People need treatment, but it’s not available,” she said. She said many of the women at House of Namaste are dealing with trauma in their lives.

Catholic Social Services helps seniors, children, families, individuals and couples, Executive Director Kurt Chismark said, and his clients are dealing with lost jobs, lost homes, lack of health insurance and other setbacks.

He said his agency is able to see them without assigning them to a waiting list, and can help those who speak Spanish.

“We not only serve the underserved, we serve the everyday Benician who is stressed and needs counseling,” Chismark said. He is asking for a grant of $18,437.

Community Action Council, which Executive Director Viola Robertson described as Benicia’s “one-stop shopping for social services,” is seeking $85,343 from the city. The agency’s total budget is $258,440.

Families and individuals get multiple services from the CAC, from job referrals to food, Robertson said.

Without the grant, the agency would face further cuts in staff and office hours. It already has cut back because some grants it had received no longer are available.

“I’m the only full-time person,” Robertson told the panel. “I work 60 to 70 hours a week.”

Families In Transition, which is asking for $35,000, helps Benicians who need short-term help in meeting utility and other bills because of unexpected illnesses or other financial crises.

Unlike other organizations, this agency has no overhead, its principals aren’t paid, and its only expense — a telephone hot line — is underwritten by a donor, President Eleanor Gauger said.

“It’s a Benicia-only foundation,” she told the panel, and it has helped 80 families that otherwise might have lost their homes or had to move.

Some of those who have received FIT assistance are those who have lost their jobs, or single mothers, Gauger said. Last year it helped 49 families; so far this year, it has helped 37 families in need.

“We’re dependent upon the city,” she said, though the organization also has been seeking other funding.

Special Friends, which works in the Benicia Unified School District, helps children who are having problems adjusting to their classrooms, said Keith Jordan, school psychologist.

It is seeking $35,000. Jordan said the intervention the program offers can avert greater problems children may experience later. “It makes sense to stay healthy and well, versus the cost of recovery,” he told the board.

“We’re preventive in nature.”

While referrals have come from teachers and parents, he said more and more students are starting to ask for help themselves.

Each 10-percent reduction in funding would mean two fewer children per site could be seen, Jordan said.