What We Do
Our Baby Bundles

For the Christ Child Society of Monterey Bay, love is the force behind “challenging poverty one child at a time”. For infants that translates into reducing new parents’ stress by providing much-needed baby essentials, honoring each new baby with blankets, quilts, teddy bears and other items made especially for them, and by including multiple baby board books and guidance on how to help babies acquire vocabulary words from day one. We deliver our bundles in diaper bags which mothers can use for months to come.
Our Partners:
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Natividad Medical Center
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Catholic Charities
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Siena House
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Sun Street Center’s Pueblo del Mar Family Recovery Center
Volunteer Opportunities:
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Join our Yarns & Stitches group and enjoy fellowship among knitters, crocheters and sewers
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Create and donate to our bundles blankets, caps, quilts, teddy bears, receiving blankets, sweaters and burp cloths
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Shop for deals for bundle essentials and car seats and procure with Christ Child funds
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Inventory, pack and deliver our bundles to our partner agencies



Our Early Childhood Literacy Program

Early childhood word acquisition and literacy are critical to a child’s success in school and life. Yet very few under-resourced preschoolers have adequate access to books outside of school. We have established a preschool literacy program to address this need, which we have adapted during COVID.
Currently we deliver sterilized “kits” for the teacher to provide to the preschool parents, for use at home with their child, and/or to present in the classroom. Each kit contains a book for the student’s personal library and activities and fun crafts for the child to do. Teacher and parental response is positive to the COVID-adapted program, and we are looking forward to Christ Child volunteers again presenting these lessons in the classroom when it safe.
Our Partners:
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Pacific Grove State Funded Preschool
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Little Bear Creek Preschool, Salinas
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Carmel Unified School District
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Carmel Community COVID Coalition
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St. Angela Merici Preschool
Volunteer Opportunities:
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Purchasing Books
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Preparing Craft Kits and Activities
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Delivering Kits to Teachers
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Delivering In-Classroom Lessons



Our Car Seat Program


It is a requirement for discharge of an infant from a hospital that the family have a car seat in the car in which the baby will be transported. For the lowest income families, this can mean borrowing a car seat and later travelling with the baby without protection, or getting a used car seat that may no longer be adequate to protect the baby. Until recently, Natividad with third party support provided about 30 car seats a year to families with the lowest means--and each of these families also received one of our baby bundles.
When the third party funding for the car seats ended, the Christ Child Society determined we should fill the gap. In 2022, we are prepared to help 60 babies go home from Natividad in top of the line Graco 4-in-1 car seats installed for safety by the Salinas Fire Department before the baby's birth. This car seat will protect the baby from his or her first car ride until they age or weigh out of a car seat, saving the family from having to purchase bigger car seats as the baby grows. Each baby to receive this lasting gift will also receive one of our baby bundles.
Our Partners:
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Natividad Medical Center
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Salinas Fire Department
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Costco Salinas
Volunteer Opportunities:
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PIcking up Car Seats from Costco
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Delivering Car Seats to the Salinas Fire Deparment
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Committee Leadership
“We appreciate the Christ Child Society of Monterey Bay and its consistent commitment to babies at Natividad over the last 4 years. The families who receive the Christ Child Society bundles are the most under-resourced of our clients, and for them these bundles are not only necessary but convey to them a sense of caring and support at what can be a vulnerable time. It makes all the difference in the world that, thanks to this new program, we can now offer many of these families a top-of-the line car seat which the Fire Department will ensure they know how to use and install. We are very happy to move forward with this new partnership in 2022 and believe it will promote health, safety and well-being in our community.” April Ritchie, Director of Women's and Family Services, Natividad Medical Center