Amount and number of grants surpass all previous years Uploaded: Fri, May 7, 2021, 6:59 am 1 Time to read: about 2 minutes Kathleen Hughes, founder of Ada's Café, left center, Charlie Hughes, center, and Todd Cerf, right, serve a customer at the Palo Alto cafe on Nov. 21, 2017. The nonprofit was among this year's Holiday Fund recipients. Embarcadero Media file photo by Veronica Weber. Amid the devastating health and economic circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year, the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund distributed more charitable grants and more money overall in 2021 than in any other year since its launch in 1993, thanks to overwhelming support from local donors.