Weekends Used to Be a Gap. Now They’re Covered.

At the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center, our members can drop in Monday through Friday for a meal, a shower, a haircut, a moment of rest. But when the doors closed on Friday afternoon, many of them faced two days with no reliable place to turn for food. It’s one of the ways we help people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara, and for a long time, weekends were the hardest part.

Sr. Maria noticed. A Daughter of Charity, she did what our founders have always done. She listened. She asked our members what they actually needed, learned that weekends were the hardest stretch, found out what people wanted to eat, and built a program from the ground up to meet that need.

Today, the Cordano Center runs Santa Barbara’s first and only weekend takeaway food bag program for people experiencing homelessness. Every Friday morning, volunteers gather to pack 60 to 80 bags so that no one has to wonder where their next meal is coming from when we’re closed.

What makes this work possible is the same thing that has always sustained St. Vincent’s: people showing up for one another. On any given Friday, you might find young missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints packing bags alongside the Ladies of Charity, a Catholic women’s organization that has been serving the poor since 1617. Different generations, different faith traditions, the same room and the same purpose. Many of these volunteers found their way to us through JustServe, a volunteer-matching portal newly available in Santa Barbara.

We are grateful to everyone who makes this program possible, including a parishioner at the Santa Barbara Mission who saw the work, wanted to be part of it, and funded its entire first year.

Our thanks as well to Patricia Martellotti and KEYT News Channel 3 for sharing this story with our community.

Watch the segment, then come see how you can volunteer or be part of the work.