Since 1986, the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund has distributed more than $85 million to help thousands of Bay Area families. The Fund offers one-time grants to help families in crisis so they can pay for housing and emergency needs. The Fund works through a network of more than 120 community service agencies to identify families in need and provide short-term, critical assistance grants. Grant monies from the Fund can help families in any number of ways, such as paying the rent so they can stay in their home, covering a security deposit so they can transition out of a homeless shelter, or buying a wheelchair or other essential medical equipment that they couldn’t otherwise afford. In addition, the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund supports food banks to provide 1.5 million meals each year to individuals and families who might otherwise go hungry. Over the last 26 years the Fund has been one of the largest donors to Bay Area food banks, providing them with more than $13.8 million. All of the Fund’s administrative expenses are covered by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the San Francisco Chronicle. As a result, 100 percent of the money raised by the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund goes directly to help the families and communities we serve.
The Season of Sharing Fund the Byrd/Walters Family avoid eviction when Victor Walters was out of work while recovering from an accident and Denise Byrd was laid off from her job.
Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.
