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Empower Q2
from Empower Q2
by SoCalGas
Empower
RESTAURANTS CARE: RESILIENCE FUND
CULTIVATING COMMUNITIES
2021 ANNUAL GIVING LETTER
The California communities SoCalGas serves are more than groups of customers. They are our neighbors, friends, and families. We overcome challenges and thrive together.
SoCalGas’ commitment to communities begins by providing safe and reliable energy; it continues much further from there, as improving life in communities is integral to SoCalGas’ core values of Championing People, Doing the Right Thing, and Shaping the Future.
Across Southern California, our amazing employees and partner organizations continue to build up
communities, from volunteering with the American Red Cross to literally going the extra mile for WalkUnitedLA. Supporting educational initiatives like the National College Resources Foundation, workforce development programs like the Youth Action Project, and local chambers and community programs reflect our larger purpose and values.
Small businesses are the lifeblood of communities, providing essential services for daily living. Few small businesses are more important and impactful than local restaurants, where families and friends come together to share time, to nourish spirits and bodies. Local restaurants are havens of cultural connection.
Los Angeles’ rich tapestry of diverse cultures, seen in the variety of restaurants and world cuisines, is one of our region’s many strengths. COVID-19 tested that strength, causing many restaurants to shut down and testing the limits of those left standing. Our support of the California Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Care Resiliency Fund goes beyond simply supporting hard-working business owners and employees, it helps preserve what makes Los Angeles a unique and special place to live.
Community is one of the most vital and resilient forces for navigating challenging times, and when it comes to California communities, the SoCalGas family shows up in many ways. We celebrate those we serve and the neighborhoods in which we live, and I hope telling their uplifting stories encourages us all to be the best we can be.
Scott Drury / CEO
COVERSTORY
RESTAURANTS CARE: RESILIENCE FUND
NOURISHING OUR COMMUNITIES
In early 2020, Covid-19 crept into every corner of the United States, threatening public health,the economy and industries both large and small. As Coronavirus cases climbed, stabilityin the restaurant industry plummeted. Every day, both front-of-house and back-of-houseemployees waited anxiously to see if they would be lucky enough to pick up a paycheckor if their shifts would be cut. On March 15, 2020 restaurants, bars and clubs all around thecountry stopped dine-in service indefinitely. In California, roughly one million service industryemployees lost their jobs overnight.
A few months later, in August, the California Restaurant Association surveyed California restaurants to get a sense of how the service industry was faring in the wake of the pandemic. The responses from restaurant owners were deeply disheartening –
30% of restaurants said they were either going to close permanently or drastically downsize. Thousands of restaurants in California had already shuttered their doors. It was a truly unprecedented time.
Partners in life and as restaurateurs, Mina Park and Kwang Uh were on a different path. They were trying to open their new homestyle Korean food shop, Shiku, at the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles during this tumultuous time. Their hope was to enrich the space with Korean flavors that were missing from the market. Shiku, which means, ‘the people that you share food with,’ was meant to be an extension of the familial bonds that Park and Uh had forged with the community through food.
Park and Uh had intended on opening Shiku in April 2020, but with the pandemic at its peak, they made the heartbreaking decision to halt their plans and wait. Uh is a celebrated chef in Los Angeles who went to culinary school at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and Park is a career-changing cook who now manages menu curation, staffing, inventory, ordering and social media. They spent the next year reorganizing, waiting and planning with the hope that one day they would be able to share their labor of love with Los Angeles.
Finally, in January 2021, they were able to host a soft opening featuring Korean side dishes and pantry items. A week later, the hot food menu was made available. “We were eventually able to open, but it was a challenging time,” Park said. “The postpandemic restaurant business environment has been difficult.” What Park and Uh didn’t know at the time was that Restaurants Care was working on creating a lifeline for small, family-owned restaurants just like theirs. Restaurants Care is a program of the nonprofit organization, California Restaurant Foundation.
Restaurants Care was started in 2017 when Jose, a cook in Sacramento, was critically injured in a hitand-run on his way home after a late-night shift at his restaurant. The original intent of the program was to provide emergency assistance to food and beverage workers in need. Individuals are able to apply for a grant when they have a housing disaster, a death in the family, health issues, or other personal obstacles.
Kwang and Mina at Shika
Photo Courtesy of Jakob Layman
Alycia Harshfield Executive Director, California Restaurant Foundation
Restaurants Care had already provided over a thousand individuals with direct grants in 2021 when SoCalGas suggested that they expand the program. Alycia Harshfield, the Executive Director of the California Restaurant Foundation (CRF) and one of the facilitators of the grant program, sat down with SoCalGas to expand on that work. They invited additional funders including Wells Fargo to create a cooperative collaboration that would provide yearround services in addition to the grants themselves. “SoCalGas said, ‘what more can we do to help people?’ and that’s when we collaborated to create the Resilience Fund to help restaurants at a wider scale,” Harshfield said.
In April 2021, Restaurants Care launched the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund with the help of SoCalGas and in May the recipients of the grants were announced. The nonprofit was able to collaborate with SoCalGas to provide $3,500 grants to restaurants in Los Angeles who needed pandemic-related assistance. Beyond SoCalGas and Wells Fargo, SDG&E, PG&E and the California Community Foundation all stepped in adding funding and support. Harshfield had the opportunity to read through a handful of the applications herself. “It wasn’t just about loss and finances; these are real family-owned businesses and these losses weren’t just affecting their income. It was impacting the communities they served,”
Harshfield recalled. “There were moments when I had tears in my eyes.” That first year of the program, the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund provided grants to 318 restaurants in total across California and SoCalGas funded more than 130 in Los Angeles County, including Shiku. Restaurant owners, frontof-house staff, kitchen workers and chefs have all benefited from the financial, logistical and moral support of this program.
That May, when recipients of the grants were announced, Park and Uh were one of the businesses to be awarded the $3,500. The grants provided essential tools that gave Shiku the resources it needed to establish itself as a community centerpiece in the Grand Central Market. “It was like a life-raft in terms of morale,” Park remembered. “It was really nice to know that people cared whether or not we survived and whether or not restaurants survived. Our gas company cares!”
The Restaurants Care Resilience Fund grantees received two layers of support. First, there is the financial support. “For us, that money went straight into payroll,” Park explained. “We opened right in the middle of the pandemic and we needed the funds to pay the team that had started with us. We have a wonderful team and we were very grateful to have that.”
In addition to that tangible financial assistance, the recipients of the grants were invited to be part of a restaurant cohort and received a year of small business services, made possible by Wells Fargo, which included monthly Zoom courses that only just concluded in April 2022. "The Zoom classes sparked so many discussions about the type of business we want to have, beyond the day-to-day,” Park said.
Throughout the course of the year, restaurants were forced to repeatedly adapt in the midst of the pandemic. Harshfield, the executive director of CRF, remembers how rapidly things were changing for restaurant owners. “There were multiple changes and confusion regarding OSHA requirements and it made it very difficult for restaurants to stay up-todate,” she said.
The monthly Zoom meetings, the connections with other restaurant owners and the legal advice all helped enable Shiku’s successful opening in the wake of these changes. “It was wonderful to have that monthly check-in and learn something new every single time,” Park said. “We picked up new legal tools, how we could improve operations and different ways we could improve food costs and hiring.”
After a year of utilizing the services provided by the Resilience Fund, Park feels like the program has benefited not only her family and her restaurant, but also everyone she had the opportunity to share
it with. “There were so many ripples from this program,” Park said. “Through the grant and with the support, we were able to be better employers to our team.”
As a recipient of the grant, Park wanted to continue that ripple outward and share the wealth of resources available via the Restaurants Care programs. “They have funding to help restaurant workers and grants for students in culinary school. We have cooks who are in culinary school. I told them about the program and they told their friends about the program,” Park recalled. “It was an expansion of knowledge to help all of us in the restaurant ecosystem.”
As Shiku’s success develops, Park and Uh are able to provide for their growing family. "The grant helped our family stay afloat in the most fundamental ways – to stay alive during this extraordinarily difficult time – the stronger our business, the stronger our family,” Park said. The strength of their own family allows them to extend those roots into their extended family in Los Angeles. They have the opportunity to continue to share food with their guests, patrons and community members because of the support from the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund.
“Shiku literally means ‘the people that you share food with.’ It’s used to refer to your family, but not just the family you’re born into – your family in the
larger sense,” Park explained. “This idea is what drives us. If this can become more profitable and successful, we can expand and support the community and organizers here.” Park and Uh have already done this difficult and meaningful work by both uplifting their eight-person restaurant team and by sharing the Restaurants Care program with their wider service industry community.
As the 2021 grant program comes to a close, SoCalGas , Wells Fargo, SDG&E, PG&E and the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund are collaborating again to focus on rebuilding restaurants in California. The 2022 grant program will focus on the needs of restaurants postpandemic and staffing issues that have been preventing restaurants from expanding their hours or operating at full capacity. “It’s still difficult out there,” Park explained. “This program gave us the strength to keep going.”
Winners for the 2022 grant were recently announced. 356 restaurants statewide and 162 in SoCalGas' service area received grants. Of the 2022 recipients, 70% are women-owned and 85% are owned by people of color. Roughly half of the recipients plan to use the money for employee retention and about half for energy efficient equipment upgrades
2021 CORPORATE GIVING HIGHLIGHTS*
1,305 GRANTS
939 UNIQUE ORGANIZATIONS
THROUGH 500 COMMUNITIES
AND 223 CITIES
TOTAL INVESTMENT FOR 2021$9.6M**
LOCAL COMMUNITY $5,163,483
LOCAL CHAMBERS & BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS $1,659,728
SAFE $1,130,950
CLEAN $832,100
INNOVATIVE $826,500
*Based on 2021 data. Charitable contributions are entirely funded by Sempra Energy shareholders, not customers.**Total community investment does not include a $10M donation to a Donor Advised Fund, which will be disseminated in future years.
CLEAN
SoCal Climate Champions Grant
SoCalGas awarded a total of $400,000 to ten nonprofit organizations through the SoCal Climate Champions Grant Initiative. The program was designed to encourage clean, safe, and innovative solutions toward a clean energy future. Awards were given for climate-solution projects that aimed to reduce, mitigate, and sequester greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improve air quality, or provide organic waste diversion solutions in the communities SoCalGas serves.
Clean Air Day
SoCalGas joined forces with Coalition for Clean Air to bring the fourth annual Clean Air Day to fruition on October 6th, 2021. SoCalGas had 500 individuals take the pledge. California Clean Air Day is built on the idea that shared experiences unite people to action to improve our community health. By coming together for a unified day of action, we can educate participants on ways to clear the air to clear the air for all members of California’s diverse communities.
SAFE
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, SAFETY & RESILIENCY
American Red Cross – Greater Los Angeles
SoCalGas’ grant supported the PrepareLA program, which identifies where socioeconomic, geographic and environmental disaster risks pose a grave threat to the viability of community life. The Red Cross then brings a variety of preparedness programs and leadership to these Communities of Focus. The main elements of effort are centered around Partnerships for Community Readiness and Response, Latino Engagement Team (LET), Regional Readiness Training and COVID Response.
Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Foundation
Our grant provided the funds for night vision goggles (NVGs) which are worn by the LAFD’s helicopter pilots while conducting nighttime and low visibility operations. The goggles are essential for pilots during brush fires, search and rescue missions, hoist operations, and other emergencies with potential structural or natural flight hazards. During fire season, the NVGs provide the ability to zero in on the heart of a wildfire by locating hot spots – an easier and more efficient task conducted at night. The NVGs allow the pilots to deploy more accurate water drops.
Climate Resiliency Grants
Climate Resiliency Grants SoCalGas awarded a total of $150,000 to three local cities for their climate adaptation solution projects that address climate vulnerabilities in disadvantaged communities. Awardees included the cities of Maywood, San Fernando, and Pico Rivera. Since 2018, SoCalGas has provided $50,000 grants to 11 municipalities to support local planning efforts in preparing for and recovering from extreme weather events.
Southern California Rehabilitation Services, Inc.
SoCalGas' collaboration supported the creation of a disaster preparedness mobile app for the underserved disability community who can now more easily be linked with multiple resources that can assist and prepare them during times of natural disasters. The app will contain important contact information and instructions on how to minimize the hazards within their homes during disasters.
SUPPORTING ACTIVE MILITARY, VETERANS, AND THE UNHOUSED
Hope of the Valley Tiny Home Village
SoCalGas funded a grant to support Hope of the Valley’s six tiny home villages across Los Angeles. The village provides a pathway for the unhoused to find permanent and stable housing. It will serve unhoused men and women with an approximate 3.5-mile radius of the site encompassing portions of Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock, El Sereno, Glassell Park, Highland Park and Monterey Hills. SoCalGas is proud to collaborate with organizations like Hope of the Valley dedicated to ending homelessness in our communities.
Foundation for Women Warriors
SoCalGas' financial support provided womenveterans with housing, childcare, employmenttraining and education. This crucial support totheir Warrior and Housing Assistance programbridged housing or a safety net when unforeseenevents place women veterans and their childrenat risk for falling back into homelessness.SoCalGas' grant also aided in security deposits,rent, job transition and car registration.
Jobs. Vision. Success. (JVS) SoCal
SoCalGas supported the Veterans First program, which provides job readiness and training to successfully prepare veterans for the workforce. In addition, JVS uses the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (CASAS) Employability Competency System Appraisal for Reading and Math. The program also offers veterans with industry-recognized certifications that bridge the gap between their military and civilian career.
United Way of Greater Los Angeles – WalkUnitedLA
After almost two years apart, Team SoCalGas safely came together to make a big impact in the fight againstpoverty during United Way of Greater Los Angeles' WalkUnitedLA at SoFi Stadium in November 2021.SoCalGas was the top fundraising and participant team, raising more than $106,000 and mobilizing nearly900 team members both in person and virtually.
The funds raised will support United Way’s efforts to help end homelessness, provide equitable and quality education to all students, and ensure greater economic mobility and increased access to opportunities for working families and individuals. SoCalGas has raised more than $2 million for WalkUnitedLA (formerly HomeWalk) since its inception in 2007.
INNOVATIVE
California State University, Los Angeles
SoCalGas supported Cal State Los Angeles senior-level engineering students’ capstone project, which focused on flame stability for hydrogen-enriched natural gas appliances. Students are applying their theoretical knowledge to real applications. A team of five engineering students, with the guidance of their faculty advisor, are retrofitting existing hardware to increase hydrogen content in natural gas appliances while maintaining and measuring flame stability. To accomplish this goal, the team will design a system to detect hydrogen, adjust flow rates and orifice size that maintain flame stability, utilize programming software to inform experimental conditions, evaluate the potential cost of system design and construction, and test and analyze system design to verify engineering principles.
Cal Poly Pomona Philanthropic Foundation
The desalination industry is facing environmental and economic challenges associated with desalinationsalt disposal while the need for low-cost energy storage is increasing due to the share of intermittentrenewables. SoCalGas’ grant assisted Cal Poly Pomona in collaboration with Water FX Inc., a local startupcompany, field demonstration of a novel energy storage device will be performed using repurposeddesalination salt as the thermal energy storage medium. A team of twenty-five students (five graduateand twenty undergraduate) will design and manufacture the thermal storage module at Cal PolyPomona under supervision of faculty and participate in integration of the system with the Water FX solardesalination facility in Panoche, CA.
LOCAL COMMUNITY
Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council (GSSGC)
GSSGC serves a diverse population of girls K through 12 within Riverside and San Bernardino counties--a region with one of the highest poverty rates in the country. The Skyland Ranch Environmental Education program teaches Girl Scouts and students of all genders about environmental sciences and responsible stewardship through experiential projects. Students learn to identify a need and develop and implement a project in their community. With the help of SoCalGas, they reconfigured an existing 3000 sq. ft. structure to house an environmental learning lab, purchase equipment and create interactive, hands-on, mobile discovery stations that can be moved to scores of different outdoor locations and integrate the natural environment with the discovery process. Discovery stations focused on multiple areas including alternative energy, astronomy, geology, hydrology, and plant and forest management.
National College Resources Foundation (NCRF)
SoCalGas supports NCRF’s missionto curtail high school dropout ratesand increase enrollment to degree orcertificate programs among underservedand underrepresented students that face achievement, workforce and economicgaps. Diversity to NCRF is not just incolor, but in gender, background andexperience. The Think STEAM Program isgeared towards increasing the numberof African American and Latino studentsgoing into STEAM - Science, Technology,Engineering, Arts, Agriculture, Aviation,Aerospace and Math careers. The programencourages students to think outside ofthe box and how to apply this thinkingto each area of STEAM so that they candream big and believe they can do it.
Southeast Community Development Corporation (SCDC)
Based in Southeast Los Angeles, SCDC established a makerspace at the Bell Technology Center that focuses on students from the City of Bell and surrounding areas, where 95% of the students are considered low-income. With support of SoCalGas, SCDC will provide classes in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses such as tinkering, coding, robotics, 3D design, and digital photography. The project will serve 351 students over a 12-month period. The Makerspace teaches students to collaborate effectively, think critically about complex problems, design creative solutions to challenges, and share knowledge. Students use high-tech tools such as 3D printers and robots, and low-tech tools including LEGOs and sewing machines. Students present their projects to peers, instructors, and community leaders who will provide feedback. They will be able to improve projects based on the feedback. The project will provide students opportunities to develop 21st-century skills that are needed for STEM careers.
SoCalGas Scholarship Program
SoCalGas awarded more than $235,000 to56 students from Central and SouthernCalifornia. Students who planned to attenda community college or trade schoolwere awarded $1,000 scholarships andthose who planned to attend a four-yearcollege or university were awarded $5,000scholarships. Recipients were evaluated ontheir academic achievements, communityinvolvement and personal statementregarding California’s clean energy future.In 2021, 86% of the scholarship recipientswere students of color. Since the program’sinception in 2001, SoCalGas has awardedover $2.9 million in scholarships to morethan 2,270 students.
WORKFORCE
Los Angeles Urban League
In 2019, we forged a relationship with the Urban League by providing them with funding to help power the Construction Career Academy, or CCA. The CCA helps people learn construction and utility trades in order to pass the union exams required for most building trade jobs. Today, the CCA provides people with the opportunity to sign up for classes at no cost.
Youth Action Project
Our collaboration enables Youth Action Project to provide soft skills and customer service training to youth in the San Bernadino County. The program also offers case management, supportive services, interview and test preparation, and help to complete job applications. In 2021, after completing the customer service training program, 100% of the participants reported they felt confident they possessed the skills needed to be a successful employee of today’s workforce.
LOCAL CHAMBERS & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce
SoCalGas supported the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce’s (GLAAACC)various small business recovery programs such as Business Evolution, GLAAACC Education Institute,Technical Assistance workshops, Digital Skilling and Women in the C-Suite. These programs help localsmall businesses shift, pivot and realign themselves in the market. GLAAACC works to combine theresources of the African American business community and other business organizations to securesolutions for expanding business opportunities.
Asian Business Association
SoCalGas supported the Asian BusinessAssociation’s business finances programs. Smallbusiness owners learn how to better managetheir company's finances by learning businessaccounting skills and various tax strategies.
Latino Business Chamber of Greater Los Angeles
SoCalGas' grant to the Latino Business Chamber’sSmall Business Technical Assistance Programassist small business participants to advanceeconomic and social equity. The technicalassistance is facilitated through knowledge, oneon-onebusiness advising, and access to resources.Assistance is provided though webinars andtraining sessions and taught by subject matterexperts in the business sector as well as partners.
National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) California
NAWBO California represents the issues andinterests of more than 1.3 million womenbusiness owners in the state. California ranksNo. 1 nationally in the number of womanownedfirms, the number of employees (1.9million) and revenues generated ($318.2 billionannually). NAWBO members own diverseindustry companies including manufacturing, construction, agribusiness, energy, retail,technology, high-tech, life science, biotechnology,transportation, health, and profession services. SoCalGas' sponsorship of the 2021 CaliforniaPropel Conference supported women businessowners in the areas of learning how to obtainbusiness with the utilities, and how womenbusiness owners can better advocate for policiesimpacting their businesses. Other conferencetopics included: technology, leadership, accessto capital, succession planning, and how toincorporate young women into businessleadership. The conference is a resource tobusiness owners across the state and helpswomen navigate the unique challenges they facein their business communities.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
In 2021, together with the Sempra Foundation, SoCalGas employees generated a total of nearly $2 million* to over 1,500 charitable organizations and logged nearly 15,000 volunteer hours.
Employees participated in numerous in-person and virtual volunteering/ donation events with organizations like the American Red Cross, LA Family Housing, HomeAid Orange County, Brotherhood Crusade, Hope Through Housing Foundation, and many more!
Team SoCalGas is committed to making a difference!
*Includes Sempra Energy Foundation matches – The Sempra Energy Foundation is a private 501(c)3 foundation based in San Diego, CA. It was founded in 2007 by Sempra Energy. SoCalGas employees donated a total of $1,063,209 and the Sempra Energy Foundation matched $919,722.
SoCalGas and the American Red Cross – Hygiene Kits
SoCalGas collaborated with the American Red Cross and assembled 500 hygiene kits for National Preparedness month and National Day of Service in September 2021. The kits were filled with necessities including socks, shampoo, toothbrushes, soap, and more. The American Red Cross then delivered the readyto-go kits to local VA hospitals and the homeless veteran community.
SoCalGas and Bob Hope USO – Thanksgiving Kits
SoCalGas collaborated with the United Service Organizations (USO) and assembled 500 food kits for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week (November 2021) at Bob Hope USO in Ontario. SoCalGas employees volunteered to prepare the ready-to-go kits, which included holiday food items such as canned goods, side dishes and dessert. The nonprofit then distributed the kits to active service members and their families in Fort Irwin and March Air Reserve Base.
Spark of Love
SoCalGas supported ABC7’s Spark of Love holiday toy drive, the largest of its kind in the nation. Employees delivered numerous boxes of toys for children, who may not otherwise receive on during the holiday season. All toys were sent to the Los Angeles City Fire Department, where they were sanitized and later distributed throughout Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, and Riverside counties.
EMAIL: COMMUNITYRELATIONS@SEMPRAUTILITIES.COM
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