NEVIDA PRESTON BUTLER has been with the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto for 14 years, beginning as a volunteer and becoming Executive Director in 1981. She began her career in San Mateo County with the American Red Cross where she is still a disaster volunteer. Under Butler’s leadership, the Ecumenical Hunger Program has grown steadily and currently serves over 2,000 people a month with emergency food, clothing, furniture and family counseling. Butler was the first person in her family to receive a high school diploma which she earned at the age of 17 while employed as a domestic worker because her father did not believe it was necessary for women to have an education. In 1989, she added a women’s support group to her program’s list of services. She has received awards from the NAACP, Links, the Peninsula Women’s Yellow Pages, the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce, the Career Action Center, the California Assembly, and the Sertoma Club.
