LifeHouse of Orange County

Christmas at the Cruz home – and the home of others who volunteer at LifeHouse -was a little different this year. Once we were done with our family events, we all converged on the riverbed by the Honda Center to serve a meal of ziti pasta with salad, garlic bread, sweet white corn and more to our friends – many of whom are homeless. It was a beautiful, bright and sunny California day and our friends who came to eat with us made it even sunnier!

Two of the greatest quotes for the day “Every time you guys come here it’s Christmas for me” and “where is your church? I want to come. If these are the kinds of people who attend your church, I want to come to your church.”He was referring to the amazing volunteers who happily come every Sunday to  provide a wonderful meal. I told him, they are all from different churches or no churches at all – and they all LOVE to come and help our friends who live outside and who need to eat a wholesome warm meal.
We served about 70 homeless men and women and children on Christmas afternoon with about 20 people  volunteers who gladly gave their time. All of us left feeling more blessed than those who received the meal.

LifeHouse is dedicated to changing lives on both sides of the tables. Those who receive and those who give – doing what we do, our lives are forever changed. What a privilege to do what we do. I hope all of you had a Christmas that you will NEVER forget and one that has made a difference on someone’s life! Merry CHRISTmas!

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We will be serving our homeless friends a warm wholesome meal on Sundays at the riverbed. Guess what day Christmas falls on this year… yup. On Sunday. And we will still be there!

I wanted to take the time to thank the companies that are donating food to LifeHouse to help make lives a little more bearable.  Parties by Panache is a world class catering company located in North Orange County. I can speak first hand about this caterer. Hollis O’Brien is the owner and I used to work with her. Not only is she donating a pasta dish for our Sunday meal, but she has supplied LifeHouse with abundant fresh food from the local Trader Joe’s. She is also one of the most fair and respectful employers I have ever worked with.

Another local company that gives to LifeHouse each week is Fill In The Hole Donuts and More in Yorba Linda. Each Sunday we receive boxes of wonderfulness that our homeless guys LOVE. From your tradition glazed donuts to HUGE baked cinnamon rolls these pastries are hard to resist!

Accessory Geeks is yet another generous company. They sell any and all types of gadgets for your electronic devices. Karen Kang, VP of Accessory Geeks  has given LifeHouse bags and bags of clothes that we hand out to the homeless, donated proceeds from the sale of products, has provided for feeding the homeless financially and continues to partner with us.

Thank you all for partnering with LifeHouse!

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