RESEDA, Calif.  – Public officials must have emergency preparedness plans and supplies in place in order to be ready to handle a crisis. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield's political career began in the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and being ready for the next emergency is something that has always been a top priority for him.

“I've been a little bit of a crazy person when it comes to emergency preparedness," Blumenfield said. "I've had a team of community activists up and running for 10 years, where we forward deploy supplies, we do trainings, we do all sorts of things.”

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But the usual emergency efforts of helping a specific group of people affected by an earthquake are very different from those of a global viral health crisis which threatens every single person in his 30-council district of the West Valley. 

“Our first reaction was OK, let's get everybody together. Let's bring the resources to people, gather volunteers. For the pandemic. You can't do any of that during this epidemic,” Blumenfield said.

Councilmember Blumenfield has the unique challenge of trying to help the 260,000 plus residents in his district while also attending to his own family.

“For me as a councilmember, where I'm working 24-seven, but I don't want to, I don't want to forget or neglect my kids either and make sure that they're doing their studies and they have what they need,” he said.

One of his top priorities has been assisting local nonprofits in his district that are struggling to get services to their clients in need. Blumenfield is now directing $100,000 from his office's discretionary funds towards establishing emergency grants for organizations so they can continue their vital services at food pantries and programs for the elderly and the homeless. 

He will also share grant applications with other public and private sector potential donors to generate additional resources. This is above and beyond the tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of critical supplies and food he has been donating from his BobCAT (Community Action Team) emergency warehouses.

To accelerate the roll-out of these funds, Blumenfield has selected the first four nonprofits to receive $10,000 nonprofit emergency grants.

 

 

 

These nonprofits are:

  • West Valley Food Pantry (Food pantry based in Woodland Hills serving unprecedented number of hungry clients during COVID-19)
  • West Valley YMCA (Local YMCA in Reseda opening showers to homeless individuals during pandemic, running clothing drive and blood drive)
  • Guadalupe Center (Catholic Charities organization based in Canoga Park providing food, ESL, tutoring, thrift store and recreational classes)
  • ONEgeneration (Senior Enrichment Center based in Reseda providing food and programming for seniors throughout the West Valley)

A school diversion project with his 11-year-old son that entails a 50-foot domino experiment is squeezed in between 10 to 15 virtual city council related meetings every day.

“Part of isolating with your family is things like that. And actually, in retrospect, those will be cherished moments,” Blumenfield said.

Overseeing the needs of many in his role as a city councilmember while balancing his role as a dad is yet another new normal during this pandemic.