Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Nancy and Jack Horton of Los Altos Hills stand among the thousands of pounds of food that await distribution to needy residents at a massive food distribution facility, Reaching Out Center, that they helped fund and build. The center, operating out of the Cathedral of Faith Church in San Jose, will give out 2,000 bags of food and 2,000 turkeys for this Thanksgiving. It provides food for 60,000 residents annually. The Hortons, actively involved in the church since the 1960s, have contributed their time and more than $1 million.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Gifts and guidance from Los Altos Hills residents Nancy and Jack Horton have helped feed thousands
ack and Nancy Horton prefer to stay behind the scenes and just quietly keep on helping. But because of the generosity of this Los Altos Hills couple, 60,000 people in Santa Clara County received food in the last 12 months, people who might not otherwise have been able to buy groceries. Or to feed their children.
The Hortons made possible a food distribution facility, called the Reaching Out Center, on the grounds of their church. This Thanksgiving, alone, the center will give out 2,000 bags of food and 2,000 turkeys.
"Jack and Nancy not only give of their means," said their minister, the Rev. Kenny Foreman, senior pastor of the Cathedral of Faith church in San Jose. "They give their life, their talents, their abilities. A lot of people can give funds. But not everyone wants to involve themselves. They shared the vision," he said.
The Hortons' vision was for their church to feed the hungry. But with "food you'd be proud to eat," Nancy Horton said. "It's all part of making people feel good and showing them we care."
The Rev. Mike Garcia, on the staff at Cathedral of Faith, said it is a quality and quantity issue. "People like to come here. We do not give anything you would not give to your own mother. And that's a direct influence of Jack and Nancy and Pastor Foreman," Garcia said.
Feeding the hungry
Like a discount warehouse, the center has food stacked to the ceiling. Like such a warehouse, people leave with bags of food. But unlike a store, all the food at the center is free.
A staff of 50 church volunteers, supervised by a paid director, gives out food, along with prayers and counseling, to hundreds of hungry people every week.
People began lining up outside before 9 a.m. on Nov. 18 before Thanksgiving, even though the doors didn't open until 10 a.m. The Center gives out food on Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon.
Inside, volunteers bag apples and pears, from crates, into plastic bags holding about five pounds. Cartons of eggs, stacked 5-feet high, teeter on pallets.
Behind the counter in a room filled with conveyer belts, large boxes of corn flakes rest on top of over-flowing brown bags filled with rice and beans, tuna, pasta, peanut butter, fruits and vegetables.
The food comes from the Second Harvest Food Bank, located across the street. Safeway donates food, as do individuals. People give money, and some food is bought. Safeway donates day-old-bread and pastries and cakes.
As people wait outside, a volunteer gives each head of household a number. When the doors open, people file inside, and take a seat in a carpeted room with rows of chairs. Two come in wheelchairs. The room fills.
After prayers and a short sermon, one by one the folks meet with a volunteer counselor.
"Some come with a special need," Garcia said. "In addition to food, we help them so they don't leave frustrated.
"We don't ask about green cards. When it comes to food, we don't let them feel afraid."
The church keeps records and allows each household to come once a month.
Desiree Hicks, 42, waited her turn with her 1-year-old, a little pistol with a pacifier. She has three other children, 9, 15 and 20, and comes every month for food.
"I like the prayers," she said. "And they treat you good." That day she was excited about getting a turkey.
Molly Gonzales, 75, has been a volunteer counselor for 12 years. "It gives you real joy to see in the eyes of a person that you've made a difference. A little bit of help goes a long way."
Most of the volunteers have been coming for years. They each go home with a bag of food and a turkey, too. Sometimes they were served by the Center and now give back.
Like Hai Tran.
"They helped me, and now I'm helping them."
Tran was a major in the South Vietnamese army and spent 12 years in jail.
Four years ago he came to Cathedral of Faith.
Now, "I'm here to help Vietnamese people who don't speak English," he said.
Building from faith
The Reaching Out Center, now one of the largest emergency food programs in Northern California, began in a closet in the 1980s. "We gave away bags of beans and rice," Garcia said. "It grew and grew. Then it moved to modulars. Then we built the Reaching Out Center." It opened in 1994.
Nancy Horton chose the spot on the church land for the center. Then Jack Horton, a drywall contractor, took over the project, getting the bids.
The Hortons donated all the drywall - several hundreds of thousands of dollars of drywall - "I don't keep track," Nancy said. "I just sort of do it."
She worked on the interior design, after studying what worked at the Second Harvest Food Bank. And he acted like the owner's agent, supervising the construction.
"Jack was here every day," Nancy said. When he was a kid, Jack's father never made more than $50 a week, she said.
Their goal: "To make people feel important, that they're special. We're not going to make them prove they're hungry. If they stand in line, they're hungry," Nancy said.
The food is like a "supplement," Foreman said. In Silicon Valley, with the high cost of housing, "after they pay their bills, there's nothing."
Jack Horton is a quiet man who doesn't say much. He walks around and watches the center in operation.
"It's nice to see what it's producing," he said.
The Hortons, both 63, have been building and giving most of the 44 years of their marriage.
They met at Campbell High School. "I started doing Jack's homework, and he liked that," Nancy said.
Jack went to work right from high school. "He has a built-in knack for business, for projects," Nancy said.
One recent project was the Radisson Hotel in San Jose, that Jack built and later sold.
Years ago, in their salad days, the Hortons met the Rev. Kenny Foreman. They belonged to the church where he came 33 years ago, to a small downtown San Jose location.
The 100 members have grown to 8,000. On Easter 15,000 come to worship. The church offers about 60 ministries, has a full-time staff of 35, a part-time staff of 70, and 400 to 500 volunteers.
And the Hortons have been there through it all. When the church needed to expand from its downtown location, Nancy spent 10 years looking for land for the church.
They found acreage in Los Altos Hills for their own home. "But I told Jack, 'We're not building our house until we get the Lord's house built.'"
At one point the church was almost built in Los Altos Hills. Nancy had an option on 23 acres on El Monte Avenue and Interstate 280 for $163,000.
"But we took a survey of where members lived and put pins in a map," Nancy said. They saw that more members were in San Jose.
So they found a 14-acre site near the county fairgrounds on Canoas Garden Avenue and began to build in San Jose.
The most recent addition to the church campus is the Family Life Center, which was dedicated Aug. 23, to the Hortons. They're the people on the plaque.
They gave more than $250,000 to the building and over the years have given "well over $1 million," Nancy said.
More than 1,800 are enrolled in the center, which includes a gym with basketball courts most cities and schools only dream of having; a computer lab filled with terminals; and an exercise and weight room.
The Rev. Kurt Foreman, director of operations for the Cathedral of Faith, looked around the church grounds. "All the buildings you see on the entire campus, they helped with," he said.
The Hortons have been giving "in every way possible," said the Rev. Ken Foreman, co-pastor with his father. The Hortons "caught the vision, partnered with the vision and made it reality."