The City Council will later be asked to approve the lease of the natural gas generators, pending permit approval from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. There have been rumors among City employees that Another Way has actually gone away. Nothing could be further from the truth. The program was started through the efforts of the Human Services Division and a group of community volunteers in Palo Alto as a way to allow people to give to local homeless programs. Spare change canisters are distributed to merchants throughout the City, for placement near the cash registers at more than 130 grocery and retail locations.
Volunteers collect the change on a regular basis.
All the money collected now comes directly to fund the services CMA provides to the homeless clients in its shelter on the grounds of the Veterans Administration in Menlo Park. When they are full, a volunteer picks up the accumulated change. People are taking the little brown cans to work, and putting them out on their desks to collect change from co-workers and clients. Draeger's Market in Menlo Park has joined the campaign, as the first of the Menlo Park merchants to be enlisted as a partner with Another Way. CMA is in the process of updating the canister art to make it more visible.