Neighbors started lining up in the grassy yard area very early for the grocery distribution. The Center’s team was there bright and early, with Lalo preparing the space and all getting ready to welcome guests. Our rented van was loaded with lots of breakfast pastries, juice, water, and snacks.  And we brought hot coffee with cream and sugar for all to enjoy.

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The team worked to unload all the supplies from the van, while the food distributor brought groceries, and the table vendor dropped off all of the rented tables and chairs.  By 9 a.m., the food distribution in the grassy yard was set up on several tables, while neighbors also waited in a line for tickets for the groceries.  Volunteers helped enthusiastically - getting the breakfast arranged, setting up dining tables and chairs, setting up the clothing boutique and hygiene table, and helping vendors find their tables in the air-conditioned building!

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Guests began arriving - hungry for breakfast and interested in exploring the services and offerings!  This was our biggest turnout yet – about 75 people visited the clothing boutique, many enjoyed a warm shower or doing laundry in the center, talked to Mikey and Lisa about their situations and needs, and visited all of the service provider partners.   Because of the environment around immigration enforcement, only 2 people returned their service guides, and we didn’t do a raffle, although most people did accept a service guide and visit the providers they needed to talk to.  

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Operation Healthy Hearts also set up a note-writing station in the indoor living room area, where guests and volunteers could share notes of gratitude to a group of prisoners who had pooled meager earnings to donate non-perishable supplies to neighbors in need.

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Unfortunately, one guest who is recently homeless was upset and expressed an intent of suicide.  When the Center’s team called the mental health crisis team, they weren’t available to come for 2 hours.  Instead, the Whittier police came-- and up to 4 armed responders and 2 cars were on-site for 45 minutes. Ultimately, the guest chose to go with the officers to get some help.  Overall, this was a sad situation; we hope that in the future either a mental health clinician from the Department of Mental Health, or the LA County mental health response team will come serve with us at this site, so that armed first responders will not be causing anxiety.

We were delighted to welcome leaders from local churches, an interim housing site, and a college to meet us and discuss how they can join next time.  We also enjoyed setting up video for a social media collaboration post between a local volunteer and Better Angels - to share more of our why and encourage others to join our movement.    As we finished our event and packed all of our supplies up, we noticed that not much hot coffee was drunk;  the thermometer showed 92 degrees at 2 p.m.  

We’re all looking forward to our next resource day on the third Thursday, July 17th!  We need more volunteers to help us, as the guest count is growing. We’ll bring an iced coffee bar! 

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