“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” – Helen Keller
March started with a beautiful Sunday, warm and sunny. Nurse Anne joined us to dispense wisdom, medical care and an assortment of goodies including hygiene kits, knit caps and vitamins. We are always happy to see Nurse Anne and so are our clients.
Mel has been busy creating tasty and nourishing hot meals for our clients. This past Sunday was barbeque chicken with crunchy rice and an incredible roasted vegetable medley. Everyone wanted seconds.
We continue to see more and more requests for rental assistance. So many people lost jobs and income during this pandemic. We are hopeful that the new ” red-level tier” will allow more of our clients to obtain employment.
In the meantime, we are so grateful to have funds to help people like Matilda and her son this past Sunday. Matilda’s employment was impacted by the pandemic. After using her emergency reserves, she reached out to UCO. We were happy to help. Celia also helped one of our senior clients obtain housing! Celia is doing the section 8 housing annual inspections as well as outreach with the Multiservice Center. It’s a busy time!
We are seeing an increase in those who need groceries and are happy to make up bags for clients to take home. As always, we continue giving our ” Alvina bags” with our lunches so that our unhoused clients have an extra meal for later on Sunday.
This week we are asking for your help in collecting peach/fruit cups, mac n cheese, soups, tuna, spam or other canned meats (with pop off lids) and bottled water. Donations may be dropped off at our alley door on Saturday, 10 am to 12 pm. UCO staff will set up a table in the doorway at the second alley door and donors are asked to put donations on the table. Staff will remain on the other side of the table and keep a safe distance from donors. We also need gently used jackets and sweatshirts as requests are increasing for these much-needed items- especially with the cold nights we have been having. If you want to help but can’t make it Saturdays, you can also send a check to UCO at 241 Cedar Ave, Long Beach CA 90802.
Thank you for being part of our UCO community. We appreciate you!
Ann Schmidt-Lampe
Interim Director