Family-to-Family

Share Your Bounty

Fully-Sponsored

Named for the Catholic patron saint of soldiers, the city of San Elizario lies on the banks of the Rio Grande in far western Texas, directly on the Mexican border. It’s an old town — first visited in 1598 by Spanish explorers, and permanently settled since 1789. The town changed hands often throughout its history — first belonging to colonial Spain, then Mexico, and finally an American town in 1848.

Its border town status shows in the town’s demographics. Roughly 35% of residents are foreign born, and over 98% identify as Latino. San Elizario experiences poverty at a startling rate: 

  • 37.1% of residents make under $35,000 a year
  • 43.2% of residents under 18 are living in poverty
  • 65.7% of residents over 25 do not have a high school diploma

Our community partner organization in San Elizario is Familias Triunfadoras, Inc. a women-led nonprofit founded in 2006 by a group of local community activists aiming to improve quality of life along the US/Texas border. Their mission is to empower women and families in this underserved region through programs emphasizing family strengthening, community unity, asset building, community development and economic self-sufficiency. 

Community Contact
Maria Ortiz
Familias Triunfadoras
PO Box 1352
San Elizario, TX 79849

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!

Data Sources:

U.S. 2022 Census Bureau
https://datausa.io/profile/geo/san-elizario-tx#about

Located on the shores of the Long Island Sound in New York’s Westchester County is the picturesque town of Mamaroneck. Typified by historic buildings and grassy lawns (the town’s Winged Foot Golf Course hosted the U.S. Open in 2020), it’s not a place one would expect to find poverty or food insecurity. Mamaroneck’s median household income is close to $100,000. 

But in spite of the prosperity experienced by most in the village, a significant number of families struggle against high costs of living — the median apartment rent is over $2,700 per month — and low wages. These issues pose tremendous challenges for the 8.1% of residents living below the poverty line, many of whom are recent immigrants from Latin America.

Our community partner on the ground is the Washingtonville Housing Alliance, a nonprofit that works to provide affordable housing to low income families and individuals within Mamaroneck and the surrounding area. To date, they have constructed or rehabilitated 115 apartments for those in need. Mamaroneck families sponsored through our program receive monthly grocery store gift cards, distributed by Bertha Gallo at Washington Housing Alliance.

Community Partner:
Bertha Gallo
Washingtonville Housing Alliance
136 Library Lane
Mamaroneck, N.Y. 10543  

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!

Best known for its wealthiest pockets (there are more than 5,200 people with over $30 million in assets in L.A.), sprawling Los Angeles County also suffers from severe poverty and economic inequality. Concentrated wealth and gentrification have led to exorbitant rent prices and a lack of affordable housing, adding to an acute homelessness problem. On an average night 55,000 people in L.A. County experience homelessness, many living in encampments. 

According to the Census Bureau’s 2024 data on L.A. County:

  • Almost a quarter of households make less than $35,000 annually
  • 13% of residents live below the federal poverty line
  • 17% of children under 18 live below the federal poverty line
  • 55% of people live in homes where languages other than English are spoken, more than double the national average

Family-to-Family works with two community partners in L.A. — one supporting our Sponsor A Refugee program and one supporting our flagship Sponsor A Family program.

Families in need for Sponsor a Family are recommended by the non-profit organization FEAST in L.A. (Food, Education, Access, Support, Together), whose mission is to help families live healthier lives. FEAST offers wellness programs to low income families that focus on food and nutrition information, and offer access to fresh, healthy foods. Providing these families with monthly grocery gift cards through our sponsorship program enables them to purchase the kinds of healthy foods FEAST encourages for lifestyle changes.

Many L.A. families struggling in poverty are also part of the county’s large and diverse immigrant population, a group that makes up 34% of its total population.  

The city has voiced a strong commitment to supporting refugees — in 2019 the city council passed a resolution naming L.A. a sanctuary city and additionally declared L.A. a “welcoming city” for refugees. To provide support for impoverished refugees in the LA. area, Family-to-Family works with Human Rights First, a non-profit, international human rights organization that identifies families in need to our organization and acts as a liaison to the families we sponsor. 

Community Contacts:

Diana Diaz Madera
Human Rights First
3680 Wilshire Blvd. Ste PO4-414
Los Angeles, CA  90010

Amy Vu
FEAST
3655 South Grand Ave. #210
Los Angeles, CA 90007  

Source Data: Censusreporter.org, U.S. Census American Community Survey 2024 1 year

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a refugee family!

Home to the once infamous maximum security prison known as Sing Sing, the town of Ossining sits alongside New York’s Hudson River just 17 miles north of Family-to-Family’s headquarters.

With a population of over 38,000, Ossining is an ethnically diverse community where 35% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino; 30% percent are recent immigrants to the U.S. and 41% of households speak a language other than English in the home. Many families also struggle with low literacy levels.

  • 54% of children in Ossining are eligible for and receive free or reduced lunch at school, with enrollment rising.
  • 42% of children live in households that are either low-income or below the federal poverty line
  • Over 15% of all families have an annual income under $35,000, money that doesn’t go far enough in a town where the cost of living is 30% higher than the national average (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).

In response to the needs of the community, the Ossining School District has sought to redefine the role of the schools in order to bridge gaps in community services and meet the needs of students and families who are increasingly relying on the schools for support. The district has been innovative in its efforts to raise awareness of poverty in the community, including through the introduction of a “simulated poverty experience” designed to raise awareness of and empathy towards issues of food scarcity and poverty among the student body and parents.

To help combat hunger there, Family-to-Family works with the Ossining School District, which identifies families in need for our family sponsorship program. Ossining sponsored families receive a monthly grocery gift card to the local Stop & Shop supermarket where they can shop for what they most need.

Data Sources:
US Census Bureau, Community Survey 2016-2017
Ossining Educators Participate in Poverty Simulation Experience 

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!

Bordering New York City to the south and the Hudson River on the west, Yonkers is often called New York’s “Sixth Borough.” With a population of 185,000, Yonkers is a divided city – the middle class mainly lives on the city’s east side and low income families mainly on the city’s urban, west side.

The highest level of poverty is focused in southwest Yonkers, where Family-to-Family’s partner organization, Westhab, Inc. is located. Westhab is a poverty outreach organization dedicated to alleviating homelessness and providing those in need with affordable housing.

Rent in Yonkers is expensive; median housing costs are well over $1,000 dollars per month, and the city has had a troubled past with affordable housing. For the thousands of families living in poverty, the city’s high cost of living presents a constant struggle.

According to the Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey, in Yonkers:

  • 23% of households earn less than $25,000 per year
  • 17% of adults over 25 do not have a high school diploma
  • 25% of children under 18 live below the poverty line

Family-to-Family receives referrals of families in need of help for our Sponsor A Family program from Westhab’s Theresa Colyar, who is also working with F-to-F to expand our Sponsor A Family program across Westchester County. Because of its proximity to F-to-F headquarters in Hastings on Hudson (less than 5 miles away), Westhab is also a regular recipient of gently used clothing donations from Family-to-Family.

In Yonkers, Family-to-Family provides sponsored families with monthly grocery gift cards to a local Stop & Shop store.

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!

Community Contact
Theresa Colyar
Westhab, Inc.
8 Bashford Street
Yonkers, New York 10701

Learn more about poverty in Yonkers:

The Painful Lessons of the Yonkers Housing Crisis

The Front Lines: Poverty and Homelessness in Southwest Yonkers

Formerly known as East Las Vegas, the town of Whitney is just a 20 minute drive from the Las Vegas Strip.  Not long ago, the area boasted a robust economy thanks to abundant jobs in Las Vegas, but during the recent economic downturn the tourism industry was hit hard and those jobs dried up.  Especially for the 18.4% of adults without high school diplomas, making a living has never been harder.  Since the early 2000’s, Whitney has seen its poverty rate climb by nearly 50%, while its population has more than doubled.

According to the U.S. 2022 Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, in Whitney:

  • A quarter of children under 18 live below the federal poverty line
  • 19.3% of households have annual income of under $25,000
  • 39.9% of residents are unemployed

Family-to-Family’s community partner here is the Whitney Elementary School, where school officials witness the poverty their students face every day.  An administrator tells us, “Most families have limited or no income at all. They live in government housing and 80% of the children are receiving free lunches. At our school, we try to provide clothes, shoes, and food to help the kids feel good about themselves, so they can learn.”

In Whitney, Family-to-Family partners with Albertson’s grocery store to provide groceries for our sponsored families.

Community Contact:
Sherrie Gahn
5005 Keenan Avenue
LasVegas, NV 89122-7461

Click here to watch a CBS News piece about how families at Whitney Elementary School are struggling to overcome poverty.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2022

Yes, I’d like to sponsor a family!