Your hometowns. Your stories.

Showcasing breakthroughs in our communities

PG&E is committed to delivering for people, the planet and California’s prosperity. The stories we tell reflect our belief that everyone matters in the communities we serve.

The future will be full of challenges, requiring innovation and action to address new energy demands, climate change and ensuring everyone can thrive. Our stories offer hope, as we spotlight where the future is bright, and the changemakers who are leading with love.

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See how students innovate and overcome adversity in "Project 212: Engineering the Future"

Learn more about the racial wealth gap in “Change the System: Building Black Wealth”

Get an up-close view of the resiliency of small restaurants in “From Kitchen to Community”

Project 212: Engineering the Future
Change the System: Building Black Wealth
From Kitchen to Community

Building Robots and Leaders

Life isn’t fair, and that’s especially true in the world of high school robotics competitions. Project 212, a robotics team from Ygnacio Valley High School, faces more challenges than most. Experience is short and resources are limited. Project 212 believes in itself though. But is grit, devoted mentors, and an unwavering focus on teamwork enough to compete against the best teams in the world?

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Project 212: Engineering the Future

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FIRST is a global robotics community whose mission is to prepare young people for the future. PG&E also recognizes that today's young people are going to shape the world we live in. As technology continues its rapid advancement and integration into so many parts of our lives, we want to ensure students studying science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) have the leadership and technical skills to positively impact the future.

The PG&E Corporation Foundation partners with FIRST to support youth teams across Northern California participating in both the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge. PG&E coworkers act as mentors on dozens of teams, while the partnership supports various FIRST programs, mentorship recruitment events, and safety programming throughout the season.

Together, the partnership focuses its support on teams within PG&E’s service territory, Title I schools, those with over 50 percent underrepresented students, public schools, and all-girls teams.

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Become a Mentor or Coach. They are the key ingredient to the success of a FIRST team, and are individuals from all backgrounds and disciplines who work with students to share their knowledge and guide them through the season.

Volunteer at an Event. Even if you only have a few hours to give, your contribution can make a difference. Working side by side with FIRST participants, volunteers play an important role in shaping young minds and inspiring students to achieve.

Start a Team. FIRST will provide you with all the support, ideas, and encouragement you need to succeed.

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Economic inequality and the racial wealth gap

Growing up in America, youth do not have equitable access to resources and opportunities. Black youth in particular face historical and systemic disadvantages, leading to disparities in wealth creation later in life. “Change the System: Building Black Wealth” follows Oakland high-school senior Otis Ward IV as he attends financial education classes at UC Berkeley while grappling with the pressures of leaving his hometown and charting his own path.

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Change the System: Building Black Wealth

Black youth today do not have equitable access to resources or opportunities, leading to a racial wealth gap in America. Otis Ward, an Oakland high school senior, along with his community, are working to reverse this trend and change the system.

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Economic Equity and Financial Education Program

In 2022, PG&E launched the Economic Equity and Financial Education Program to support African American wealth creation. The program helps address the disparities in wealth unduly affecting African Americans. Through the program, UC Berkeley Haas Business School Executive Education professors give African American high school students a better understanding of:

Tools to build wealth: personal finance, company valuation, and portfolio theory and management
Equity investments, with real-life examples and up-to-date market trends

Candidates for the program are:

High school students in or around Oakland, CA
College-bound, with a high aptitude for academic success and civic leadership
Recruited and selected by the Mills College at Northeastern University Trio Programs

Students who complete the program receive an $8,000 college scholarship. As of February 2024, the program has graduated 48 students.

PG&E worked with Jason Miles, Amenti Capital Group and Hass Business School Executive Education at UC Berkeley, to develop this instructor-led program. It is based on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Disparities in Wealth by Race and Ethnicity in the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, published in 2020.

A 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances showed white families have six times as much wealth as the typical Black family. It states, “we remain far from racial equality, reflecting the large differences that have persisted for decades.”

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Mills College Upward Bound. Spread the word! Mills College Upward Bound is a free college access program that supports high school students in Oakland and Richmond and prepares them to enter college.

Oakland School Volunteers. Support Oakland public schools by becoming a volunteer.

Partner with Us to Close the Racial Wealth Gap. Contact Joshua Reiman at PG&E about film screenings, events, and partnership opportunities.

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Every restaurant owner has a story

Local restaurants, owned and run by your friends and neighbors, are one of those things that make each community special. They are the places where people come together, share a meal and connect. These stories show the indomitable spirit of California small business owners and the vital role they play in every community.

Restaurants care

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Survive and Thrive

Nicole Hodge moved to Vallejo with a modest ambition – to open a catering kitchen. What she didn’t foresee was that a pandemic would hit. It would challenge her business in so many ways, but it would also lead her to becoming an indispensable part of the community. Survive and Thrive is the story of a woman's commitment to her new hometown, of welcoming people of all backgrounds into your life, and of how much joy can be found in building community, day by day.

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The Cook and Her Farmer

Romney Steele grew up around California food royalty, her grandfather having founded Big Sur’s famous Nepenthe. Romney’s own vision for a restaurant was different though. She envisioned a community-grounded space more like a soup kitchen. Steven Day wanted a place where people who had never had an oyster could eat one. The Cook and Her Farmer is a story of a shared destiny and the path forged to change the lives of people across Oakland.

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Food, Family & Fresno

When the pandemic hit, Anna Juarez worked 65 days straight, 18 hours a day to keep her restaurant, Las Mañanitas, open. Once her family committed to opening the restaurant and then witnessed how it also served as a source of community for so many, they knew they had no choice but to find a way, some way, any way, to keep it open.

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Smoking Good Food & Goodwill

OZ and Valencia Kamara know what it feels like to be, in Valencia’s words, "legit hungry." Therefore, it was not their plan to build a restaurant that would serve people across Sacramento. Smoking Good Food & Goodwill shows how a family’s bond, both to each other and their community, not only kept them afloat when all felt lost, but led them to thrive and tend to the needs of others in a way they never imagined.

Restaurants care

In 2021, PG&E and other California utility companies recognized the need to support small, local businesses hurting from the impact of the pandemic. In partnership with the California Restaurant Foundation’s Restaurants Care Resilience Fund, PG&E and The PG&E Corporation Foundation helped create a fund to help restaurants. The grants pay for equipment and technology upgrades, unforeseen hardships, employee retention and training to help restaurant owners invest in their business and people.

Grants are made available to California resident restaurant owners with fewer than five units and less than $3 million in revenue. The program prioritizes minority- and women-owned businesses.

Over the last three years, PG&E and The PG&E Corporation Foundation have contributed over $3 million. The funds will support nearly 700 restaurants across PG&E's service territory in Northern and Central California. The grants, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, have helped restaurants stay afloat, enabling them to purchase needed energy efficient equipment and retain their staff during challenging financial times.

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Receive alerts for new grants. Sign up for Restaurants Care email alerts so you know right when new grant opportunities are announced.

Go support a restaurant grantee’s business. Check out the list of restaurants who have received a Restaurants Care grant and have a meal with your friends or family. Your business goes a long way to support local restaurants.

Simplified Savings Program for Restaurants (PDF). If you are a small business owner, you can find no cost energy solutions through this PG&E program that helps reduce your energy costs.

Rebates for food service equipment. PG&E offers several rebate programs that will help you save money and improve productivity when you upgrade your food service equipment.