Social Assistance

Monterey IMPACT

Monterey County Works has created the Monterey IMPACT program, which allows individuals to gain valuable work experience while making a difference in Monterey and helping their community while getting paid.

Monterey IMPACT focuses on helping address some of the food insecurity challenges within our county.  The IMPACT program is looking for participants to assist with taking on this challenge by creating community gardens, assisting at local food banks, and working with local non-profits to address these issues and provide support to these organizations.

Monterey IMPACT exists because, despite being viewed as the “Salad Bowl of the World,” a significant number of Monterey County residents experience either short- or long-term food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.

While many of our residents are thriving, we have neighbors who need support to be able to have the necessities of life, such as food:

• 34% of residents and 66% of farmworkers are food insecure.
• 1 in 3 Children in Monterey County is hungry:  Monterey County ranks among the highest in all 58 California counties in child poverty, childhood homelessness, and incidence of Type 2 diabetes.  Monterey County also has more homeless students than San Francisco & San Jose combined.

Check back with us for the next training opportunity.