April 19th, 2010
Hunger and homelessness is striking more and more Americans even in affluent areas such as Orange County. We hear conflicting reports of the economic upturn at the same time economic downturn. We hear of hope and prosperity returning to the United States and yet we read about the 35,000 homeless folks, a large portion of them families that infects these United States. And more impacting than reading it is seeing it with our own eyes. Most of us can’t drive through town without seeing someone pushing a cart or hauling a overloaded backpack with their lives stuffed deep inside.
LifeHouse is out weekly in Sunny Orange County, California feeding the homeless and providing some of their very basic needs. Razors to shave with, jackets to keep them warm, sleeping bags to hunker down in at night along the riverbed.
Help Yourselves!
Being a very small nonprofit, we still are able to affect hundreds of lives each month. But we can’t do it without support. We ourselves feel the pinch and tightening of the wallet but we have a roof over out head and a way to put gas in our cars. Our mission is to help alleviate just a tiny bit of the stress of wondering where the next meal will come from by bringing a lunch to a group of homeless people who live along the river bed. Sometimes there are 35 guys out there and sometimes there are 2 but we leave what we bring – we know at some point most of the guys out there will be walking by and be able to get a meal for that day.
Donated Books and our Mobile Library
We also provide a hot lunch once per month at a local park. Spaghetti or hamburgers, or turkey on Thanksgiving, whatever it is that we are able to get from Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County (www.feedoc.org) . This last time we were at the park we were blessed by a friend named Arvind who rented a taco guy for us. Arvind said that if he gets a bonus at work this month, he was going to give back to the community and he did just as promised. With his generous donation he was able to feed nearly 100 homeless men, women and children. We are so grateful for his generosity as well as the generosity of others who have given in abundance. Some of the people who help, bring food that they have cooked, some come to serve – always a kind word for the friends who live outside they appreciate the unselfish commitment of these folks trying to make the lives of our homeless friends just a little more bearable.
We recently had another one of our generous friends Rose through her school donate hundreds of books to us and we formed a mobile library for the homeless. we load books up in totes and take them with us to the parks where they can pick any books they want to read and keep them when they are done, return them next time we’re there or share them with friends. This has proven as great an gift as the food is.
A constant companion this cat doesnt wander from his owner
We are seeing a different face of homelessness on our journeys around Orange County. We are meeting people who have had high paying jobs or even owned their own businesses who are not living out of their cars, looking for the next meal and for a place to park for the night that wont get them in trouble with the police.
Second Harvest has featured a man from Texas who is living in his car after having a successful business. I have posted the article here. http://blog.feedingamerica.org/2010/02/who-is-hungry-in-america/
