Ceres closure causes change
Ceres at their yearly Harvest Of The Heart (Alexa Rios, The Puma Prensa)
By Alexa Rios, staff writer
On February 28th, 2024, Ceres Community Project, the next-door neighbor who also rented out Social Advocates Youth (SAY) Dream Center space, abruptly had to shut down its Santa Rosa Kitchen, coinciding with SAY filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, closing the chapter on a well-established community.
As someone who volunteered there for almost two years and was a Teen Leader for almost a year, this change has personally been both frustrating and detrimental. Before the closure, the Cere’s commute was a breeze, but it’s since turned into an incredibly difficult drive owing to the nearest Kitchen being in Sebastopol. Usually, volunteers start at 3:00 pm, but Carrillo students arrive around 4:00 pm. From there, they leave at 6:30 pm or sometimes even earlier. However, they now start at 5:00 pm and end at 7:00 pm. While this doesn’t seem like it would be a huge issue, commuting there has been a difficult task since the old Santa Rosa Kitchen was much closer and only 25 minutes away from Carrillo. This closeness allowed most people to stop at their houses first to grab something to eat or to take a break from the stress of school. That is no longer the case with the further away kitchen.
I do understand the struggle that Ceres has. Packaging and making meals for people who depend on them is a lot of work and wouldn’t be possible without support from the volunteers. Ceres teen board member Esther Luvishis says that while “we do not miss a single meal, as Sebastopol has increased production [however] the biggest blow is volunteers—only about 15 of them are going to Sebastopol.” And while I agree with helping out in our community when people need it the most, students also need time to do their homework and extracurriculars. For example, I don’t always have a ride to Sebastopol, prohibiting me from going. My parents refuse to go that far, so, unless my friends can take me, I can’t go.
There have been updates as to what comes next; Luvishis says that “they are building a new building,” and a “whole fundraiser is [ongoing] campaign for a new headquarters in southwest Santa Rosa within 20 minutes of a lot of high schools.” But finding somewhere to set up a brand-new kitchen and a garden isn’t an easy task. It’s uncertain as to the future of Cere’s, yet through volunteers helping and the amount of support shown to this non-profit, I am sure they will bounce right back and soon start giving back to the community.