Unprofessional. Do not donate to these people…read more CSA advised me to get a 3-day pay-or-quit notice from my landlord. They said they'd put me on a waitlist for rental assistance. So I did that. Three months later, CSA hadn't even contacted my landlord. My landlord refused to accept my offer for partial rent and has proceeded with eviction. One of the women there, Jocelyn (or Jacklyn?), is always neurotic and hostile to me. I have no idea why.

Amazing agency with professional staff who are kind and hard working. They have a great food pantry…read moreand have great volunteers. They have amazing events for their clients and aim to provide as much as possible

We are super grateful to have a place like Ronald McDonald! My daughter is recovering from a heart…read moresurgery and getting ready for a heart transplant. Being local to Stanford is necessary just in case of an emergency and this place is a blessing to us! I do have to say this place needs more cameras to avoid disguising people making a mess everyone! I hate entitled people who think they can make a mess and have someone clean it up. The staff is always super friendly. We are raising funds for a heart transplant please reach out to me directly for information on how you can help us share the fundraiser link. Just sharing it in your social media will help us enormously!

Really nice place for families that need a place while children are in the hospital. Place Is…read moreclean and has great resources

Joined "Lawn Be Gone Bike Tour" led by Gary Hedden of Green Town. The tour was very well organized…read moreand provided good information. Some of the yards were so gorgeous they were inspirational...lots of flowers and lots of color with very little water. The landscape architect of one of the yards explained the process of getting the state rebate ($2 a square foot, $4 in Palo Alto) for removing lawns. This information will end up saving us money. We did not know that you had to have a water department audit of your lawn before you started the process of of removing it. We had already turned off the water to let it die. After learning about the process we are getting an audit immediately while the lawn is still alive, and we will be able to qualify for the rebate. Consequently, this pleasant morning on a bike will end up saving us a couple of thousand dollars!! Five stars!!

Thanks for the awesome "Lawn Be Gone" tour! I really enjoyed meeting other locals, using our bikes…read moreto tour around town (found a few new shortcuts I'll use in the future), and of course the tour was fantastic. Discovered some great ways to save water and to plan better for future landscaping. Thanks for providing such an important service for our community.

I enjoyed MOAH for its educational exhibits. My review is…read morefor the beautiful garden area and canopy as an event space. You can use Peerspace app to book this for events Thurs-Sun between 4-10pm. The gardens are wonderful for an intimate outdoor wedding or reception. I booked it for my wedding reception. The string lights add a romantic touch to it. Lauren who helps manage the space is very responsive regarding any questions. They provide banquet tables and chairs for a reduced fee. Also our guests loved the venue (30 total seated comfortably). A wonderful, budget friendly event or photo shoot location. Always keep garden clean! Thank you for giving us a memorable day!

Went to a private event there and we were able to tour the museum. There were some very…read moreinteresting displays. I liked how they showed the evolution of items over time like cameras, calculators, etc. it's a small museum but with displays worth seeing. I appreciated seeing the museum plus the attractive grounds

A well-established Palo Alto environmental nonprofit, with many projects underway, most notably the…read morehabitat restoration and stewardship project on Arastradero Preserve, a collaborative effort with the City of Palo Alto that has been going on for 10 years. Visit their website to learn about their many other projects, which change periodically as Acterra responds to changing conditions and priorities. Props go to Acterra for Arastradero, the Business Environmental Awards, and their ongoing fiscal sponsorship program, which has nurtured many powerful, high-impact local environmental startup groups over the last 20 years. Occasionally, however, they seem to experiment with rather slow-moving in-house programs that generate fanfare and consume funding but are light on delivering results. This, I find, is not a judicious use of public-benefit funds. In all fairness, of course, not all projects succeed, and some experiments are worthwhile; nevertheless, some recent projects such as the "Green@Home" initiative (which sends "tiger teams" of three people to "green" a single household by installing CFL bulbs and whatnot) just seem outright goofy from a cost-benefit perspective. Because of this recent trend towards slow, expensive 'wonderfulness" in preference to rapid, tangible achievements, I suspect they would benefit from some fresh blood and fresh perspectives somewhere in the upper echelons of the organization--board or management. On balance, though, this 30-year-old outfit is doing a great job of pursuing its primary mission of "acting locally" for the good of the environment, and has enriched the lives of many, many local people who have volunteered with Acterra's projects or attended its events.

I attended my first Acterra Business Environmental Awards last week and came away from it feeling…read moreso uplifted and inspired. This event draws much-needed attention to businesses that promote sustainability, creating a strong community of learning, support, and mutual inspiration. Their other projects are also so cool and seem to fly under the radar; right now they are working to convert people to driving electric cars as well as installing free solar panels on the homes of low-income Bay Area residents to lower their energy bills. If you are able to volunteer with them or donate, I really recommend it!

This is a food kitchen serving the needy in San Mateo county, mostly Redwood City and Menlo Park…read more People can also get bread and fresh produce and occasional canned or pantry goods. I go as a volunteer. I have worked prepping food to be served in the hot lunch but now work with the produce. What an experience! Produce goes quickly and more is brought out so people can have healthier meals at home. If you have time to give, this is a great place to use it!

Very responsive in determining what I could donate and not. I hope that translates to good service…read morefor the people who need it.

"Bravo, Bravo! Compassionate, Professional Staff."…read more I had the good fortune of meeting a local staff member, as well as the new CEO, Aubrey Merriman, recently at a local diner. We talked for quite a while about strategy for helping the homeless people. I was especially interested to see how they worked with mentally ill situations. Aubrey explained that they have a psychiatrist who comes on site, to make it as easy as possible to get the medication for these people. I was impressed with his vision and plan for helping these poor unfortunate folks. The CEO explained that they have an excellent record for getting these people into permanent housing, such as living with their family. I'm delighted to see that we have such quality people running this organization. This is a vitally important institution. People's lives are at stake.

LifeMoves is all heart with a will and determination to make a difference in the population without…read morehousing, jobs, or health care services. It is a daunting task to support staff in areas where the cost of living in the SF Bay Area is high. LifeMoves is doing what they can to house (temporarily) and find jobs along with permanent housing for those who are currently living with minimal support. It "takes a village" but when clients get permanent housing and a job, that's worth celebrating.

I love being a BUILD mentor. Once a week, you and two other mentors meet with a group of 4-5 high…read moreschool students and help them develop a business idea. They create a PowerPoint presentation, participate in 3 showcases and submit a written business plan based on their product. This culminates into a business plan competition where they compete against other BUILD teams from nearby high schools. It's held at Stanford's GSB and is a huge accomplishment for the kiddos. My team Star Mentality came in 2nd place and it was amazing to see them present their product with poise, maturity, and humor. The memorable moments include taking them out on a Saturday looking for outfits to wear at the competition or eating dinner with them at Chili's prepping for the showcases. The kids made this an amazing experience. I've volunteered with Big Brothers and Big Sisters since high school and this is an equally awesome program. So awesome, I'm returning as an E2 mentor. I'm getting my team ready to meet a real venture capitalist in order to secure funding to start their business. If you can't commit to mentoring, volunteer to be a tutor. You'll love it!

BUILD is one of the most well funded, connected and professionally run non-profits I've…read moreencountered. I found them through the Cisco Volunteer Fair and what stood out compared to the other after-school program is their huge college acceptance rate and their approach using entrepreneurship to incentivize students that are just bouncing at school. They have branches in the East Bay and Peninsula and I know people who are very dedicated to the cause. Their Peninsula office looks like a tech startup. I signed up to be a mentor. To be a mentor is like applying to school and job all over again. You have a phone interview, need to provide references, and write essays on why you want to be a part of BUILD. They do a background check on you because you're working with children. I volunteered on the Peninsula E1 with Woodside High School paired with a co-mentor with 5 students. Jacyln, the BUILD rep, was there every day and a great resource for us and Mr Moses, the teacher was a great person to reign in the kids. Being a mentor is an exercise time, patience, frustration and exuberance while you're crafting a product, business plan and presentation with them. At the end their hard work is presented at the BPC at Stanford School of Education in a huge hurrah! For Peninsula, if you want a more established system, go to the Sequoia High. But if you want to work with underdogs and be more unscripted then go to Woodside or Carlmont High. The other mentors are very talented and dedicated to the cause. We drive an hour and a half across the bridge from work each Thursday in order to be here. We spend more time on the road we do with our mentees but it's definitely worth it. If we could do this next year we will definitely do the E2-E4 class at their main office which is closer to the 101 Freeway.