Maria Snyder Valencia resident Maria Snyder and her husband were dropping off a package at a home in Castaic. The Snyders were not to come in close contact with the families, as COVID-19 protocols were still enforced.  But then a child, maybe 3 or 4 years old, ran out the door and grabbed hold of Snyder’s husband as he’d turned to head back to the car. The child couldn’t be happier and more thankful. The package was not full of toys or games. It contained food for the boy and his family. And the boy, hugging Snyder’s husband, said to him, “Thank you for the food.”  “I’m Catholic,” Snyder said in a telephone interview. “I believe in Christ. And he was very, very clear to say, ‘When you come to me at the end of your life, if you gave, I’m going to say that you gave me food when I was hungry, you gave me shelter when I was homeless, you gave me a drink when I was thirsty. And you’re going to wonder when you did that.’ So, he (Christ) says, ‘Whenever you did this for my other children, you did it for me.’ And that is something that I live by.”  Snyder, now 71 years old, has spent almost three years helping families living in that interim house in Castaic while they get back on their feet. She’s been giving to others since she was a child living in Ecuador. Her mother taught her to always share, to always give.   “Ecuador is one of the countries, when I was growing up, that had the haves and the have-nots,” Snyder said. “And there were a lot of have-nots, and the middle class is super small.”  Snyder’s mother introduced her young daughter to acts of giving by leading through example. Snyder witnessed the kids of the area calling her mother “godmother” because of how generous she was to all of them. Snyder’s dad, who was a controller of a brewery at the time and who’d worked hard for his money, perhaps thought his wife was a little too generous.  “My dad was a bit more conservative about giving away what he made at work,” Snyder said. “If my mother could, though, she would’ve given it all.”  Additionally, Snyder’s sister in those days was sickly and her dad had to take extra work to pay for the medicine she needed.   “In Ecuador, there was no such thing as insurance in those days,” Snyder said. “So, my dad would spend time with these small businesses — mom-and-pop shops — and he’d do their accounting and their tax reporting.”  Still, Snyder’s mother expected her daughter to give. Snyder spoke of one time when she was about 6 years old and, upon receiving a special dessert, was forced to share it with others. At that young age, with a delicious and rare treat in hand, that was a difficult thing to do, she said.  When Snyder was a teenager, she’d continue to offer generosity. In one case, she’d help one of her dad’s doctor friends who had started a community program in what Snyder called one of the poorest areas in town. Snyder offered cooking ideas to help mothers in that program.  “And I’d teach how to do meals that were affordable, nutritious and available,” she said. She spoke of the many things you can do with plantains, which grew in abundance in Ecuador.  At 17 years old, Snyder came to the United States as part of a foreign exchange student program. She stayed with a family in Des Plaines, Illinois, and she loved it. A couple years later, she’d get to return to America as a result of the political system in Ecuador taking a turn for the worse.  “There was big talk about this one candidate who was communist,” Snyder said, “who wanted to join Fidel (Castro). My dad said, ‘No, I worked too hard to just give everything away.’ So, he retired, and we came to Los Angeles.”  Snyder would later earn a degree in business administration from Cal State University, Los Angeles. She’d find a job in her field but would quickly learn her heart wasn’t in that kind of work. She’d later learn that she loved human resources. That’s what she did most of her career until she retired in 1997.  Snyder is married and has two children — a son and a daughter. Over the years, the family moved around quite a bit. Snyder’s husband, who’s in sales, took jobs or got transfers in places all over the country.   It was in 1994 that Snyder and family discovered Santa Clarita. However, upon her father-in-law getting sick in the early 2000s, they’d move once again, this time to Michigan. But in 2011, a few years after her father-in-law had died, they returned to the SCV.   Snyder became a parishioner of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church in Santa Clarita, and in early 2022, she began donating to families through Family Promise of Santa Clarita Valley. Snyder’s first task was to find a few other parishioners who’d be interested in helping her serve.   Maria Snyder admires the flowers in front of the Family Promise interim home in Castaic on Sat, Sept. 14. Habeba Mostafa/The Signal Family Promise, according to its website, is an organization that aims to help homeless families and low-income families achieve sustainable independence through community-based response.   “Our main focus is to ensure that families are diverted from homelessness and to prevent them from experiencing homelessness,” said Monica Holmes, program director of the program in SCV.   Family Promise will move families who are homeless or on the brink of homelessness into their interim house and give them 30-, 60- and 90-day opportunities to catch up on debt, save and qualify for stable housing.  “We’re here to really support the families that are low-income, moderate- to low-income, and ensure that they have opportunity and a promise of not losing housing,” Holmes said. “Every Wednesday, there’s a hot meal delivered. Every Sunday, groceries are delivered. The goal in the house is that families don’t have to spend any money on housing or food. So, we don’t charge them to stay there for the duration of time that they’re there. And also, we encourage them to not spend any money on food because food is provided.”  Holmes said that Family Promise currently has four families in its interim home.   Snyder and her team of parishioners, which includes her husband, Tim Snyder, Rita Villaseñor, Fatima Purdy and Theresa Meza, donate food, supplies and meals one Sunday a month to families at the interim home. Snyder has also collected donations for a previous Thanksgiving meal and presents for children and their families at Christmas.  According to Holmes, the need is certainly there. Families are suffering every day, falling into homelessness without any support. One of the big priorities, Holmes said, is to protect children from being homeless.   “No child should ever go through homelessness,” she added. “If we can stop homelessness in a child’s life, then we stop generations of homelessness.”   Holmes said that people are more likely to be homeless as an adult if they experience homelessness as a child.   “So, if we’re able to capture children before experiencing homelessness,” she continued, “by supporting their parents and helping them with financial literacy, shelter, diversion, opportunities, then we save that child’s propensity to become homeless when they are adults.”  Portrait of Maria Snyder in front of the Family Promise interim home in Castaic on Sat, Sept. 14. Habeba Mostafa/The Signal Holmes is appreciative of all those volunteers who help. Since Family Promise is nonprofit, the organization relies on the community to power what they do. Holmes voiced her appreciation for those like Snyder, saying it’s people like her who make the difference.  “Volunteers directly help our families,” she said, “whether it be with supplies, gift cards, providing dinner, providing groceries. That directly helps multiple families that are at risk of homelessness or experiencing homelessness.”  Courtney Tole-Schmitz, Family Promise donation and volunteer manager, added her own comments about Snyder: “She really is such a wonderful human being. We are so grateful for her and all that she does for Family Promise.”  Snyder said that the work she and her team have been doing for Family Promise families has been rewarding on multiple levels. She’s most happy to know that she and her team have been helping families get back on their feet after being knocked down.  “What I like about this ministry is that it’s not a handout,” she said. “It’s a hand up. They (Family Promise) teach these people to become self-sufficient. If you’ve lived as long as I have, you need either emotional support or financial support. At certain times in your life, you may have reversals of fortune. But you’re not supposed to stay there. You’re supposed to get up with that support and have faith.”  She added, “There are people that I know who married out of high school, and then the husband dies. I know one case for sure, and they’re like a deer in the headlights. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know where to go. There are times when you just need a helping hand. Is it forever? No. That’s why they stay at that transitional house, and they go through classes to learn how to handle their finances, how to look for a job, how to do a resume. It’s not a handout. Maybe at first, but they have to do their part.”  Know any unsung heroes or people in the SCV with an interesting life story to tell? Email [email protected].  The post Faces of the SCV: She lives to serve  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.