Touted as a working alternative to charity, nonprofit Sunday Friends provides weekend classes and projects for low-income families in San Jose.
Families involved with the nonprofit can earn tickets to be used at the Sunday Friends store on Story Road by participating in classes focused in areas such as parenting, financial literacy or computer skills. They also make gifts for children in hospitals, the elderly and veterans.
“The idea is to bring a smile to someone else,” said executive director Ali Barekat. “It instills a feeling that ‘I can help someone in the community; I’m not a charity case.’ “
Currently, some 200 families and 100 volunteers meet up on Sunday mornings to tackle classes and projects. The store on Story Road is open 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday through Friday. The workshops/events for families are only on Sundays, rotating between the three school locations.
“We build community and a support team,” he said. “They love to socialize here. It’s their place.”
A family can’t spend more than 3,000 tickets a week but they are welcome to “bank” leftovers and even earn 2 percent interest each month.
“Your money is no good here,” said Barekat about the store filled with things like cleaning products, baby necessities and school supplies. “You must have gone to the program.”
Barekat estimates that by using the nonprofit’s ticket system for items such as toilet paper and baby wipes, a family saves an average of $45 per week.
The executive director said that the ticket amounts for items are purposefully high to encourage math skills. Abottle of detergent, for example, goes for 250 tickets.
Books, however, are always free, he said, as the organization hopes to extend learning to the home.
The organization was started 17 years ago at local homeless shelters by Los Gatos resident Janis Baron. She offered children small rewards, and then the ticket system, for doing tasks around the community or reading. The idea spread like wildfire, and soon parents were asking what they could do to earn tickets for household needs. Baron enlisted the help of her own children and Los Gatos High School’s Interact Club to manage the popular program and it ran in shelters for its first six years.
Sunday Friends then started a program at Lowell Elementary School and has since expanded to Kennedy and Anne Darling schools in San Jose but accepts anyone who wants to participate. The store on Story Road is open 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday through Friday. The workshops/events for families are only on Sundays, rotating between the three school locations.
Barekat said that the nonprofit works closely with San Jose Unified School District and Franklin-McKinley School District to distribute fliers to schools that serve both breakfast and lunch, since both districts serve high populations of low-income families.
The nonprofit has partnered with groups like Kaiser Permanente, Lockheed Martin employees, eBay, the San Francisco 49ers and a number of Bay Area nonprofits with similar goals of helping families end the cycle of poverty.
These partnerships have led to a volunteer base that goes beyond San Jose and into neighboring communities such as Saratoga, Sunnyvale and Cupertino.
Barekat himself has close ties to the tech world as a co-creator of the medical advice website WebMD.
He said he was impressed with the model of Sunday Friends when his son volunteered with the group as a Bellarmine student, leading Barekat to be on the board and eventually in his current role.
“When this introduced itself to me, I felt there was nothing better to do with my life.”
Sunday Friends will hold a “Holiday Shopping Spree” on Nov. 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the Target stores at 1811 Hillsdale Ave. in San Jose and 20745 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino.
Volunteers are asked to bring themselves, a friend and a donation of $10 or more to either store. They will then be given lists of items to search for in the store to purchase with the collected money.
The gifts will go to the Sunday Friends shop at 730 Story Road for the program families to buy with tickets. Gifts will include toys and other items for children for the holidays.
For more information, visit sundayfriends.org.