Hello to friends and supporters of Urban Community Outreach.
For people who are homeless, the biggest impacts of the Covid19 disaster have been the closures of some local food banks and all libraries.
Finding food, restrooms and shelter have become more difficult for people who have no home.
During wet weather like tonight, living without shelter all night long is an unimaginable situation for the rest of us to fathom.
Prior to the afternoon drizzle, we provided sack lunches to over 180 grateful people today – thanks to COA for sharing their bounty of packs of strawberries that were given as an added treat to our guests. Prior to giving them their food, we distributed sanitizing wipes to nearly everyone (before we ran out). We gave out all 200 sack lunches that were put together by our staff and our volunteer Neil. We scrambled at the end to put together five more lunches with the items left in our fridge. Thanks to our volunteers Kyle, Ed and Doug for helping during the distribution of water, lunches, strawberries, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Thank you also to Food Finders for delivering groceries this morning. These donations allowed people to have a little more food in their lunch bags than originally planned.
A special thank you to Shannon at Long Beach Coffee and Tea for giving face masks for our staff and volunteers.
In order to keep our modified operations going, I am sending this email to ask for your assistance. We are in need of sanitizing wipes, sliced bread, lunch meats, power bars, fruit and other foods that we can give out in the takeaway lunches next Sunday. Our wish list also includes pasta, pasta sauce, soups and other groceries to pass on to our housed clients.
Donations should be brought to the First Congregational Church at 241 Cedar Ave. on Wednesday, 3/25 from 4:30 to 5:30 pm. Please drive to the alley adjacent to the Potholder parking lot and we will have a table set up at the doorway where donations will be placed. We will be on the other side of the table to take the donations to the fridge or pantry. Social distancing standards will be followed.
Donations of blankets will also be accepted and passed on to our friends at St Luke’s to give away during their Saturday program.
During the last month, we have been dipping into our reserves to keep our operations going. For those of you who would like to make a monetary donation, please feel free to donate to UCO at https://www.ucodic.org/donate/ or send a check to the address below.
Your help and compassion are much appreciated during these uncertain times.
Julie Lie
Executive Director
(562)225-6416 https://www.ucodic.org/