The war against hunger is at its peak in the first three months of the year, says Danny Keith, chief development and technology officer at Second Harvest Food Bank Of Santa Cruz (SHFB). He says donations to SHFB “atrophy” between January and March, as the press coverage received during its holiday food drives dies down.

Project Homeless Connect provides a cornucopia of services for homeless and low-income people Tuesday, March 22 dawned cold but cloudless in Santa Cruz. The reprieve from five days of rain was a gift for three homeless men waiting outside the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.

Lin Colavin lights up when she talks about volunteering with Project Homeless Connect. An energetic grandmother of three and soup kitchen volunteer who’s lived in Santa Cruz for 37 years, Colavin doesn’t lack human connection. Yet the interactions she had at last year’s event inspired her to get more involved this year. “My experience was one of meeting people that I would’ve never had the opportunity to meet,” she recalls. “I came away feeling so enriched.”

Project Homeless Connect encourages local homeless to fill out 2010 Census Jared is 20 years old, and like most homeless people interviewed for this article, he declined to give his last name. He is pale and delicately built, with shy brown eyes, a mane of blonde dreadlocks festooned with tiny silver charms, and a cut on his forehead that’s almost healed.