Week 33

Today was gloomy, but the weather person forgot to mention it will be raining sandwiches!

Ana and I started off in downtown today to get some images of how some people are dealing with the weather.


Sadly most people did not have tarps or warm looking apparel.


Also there are people with insufficient ways to carry to their belongings that just seem to get trapped in places. For example this man is always in the same area, I thought it was where he was comfortable. It turns out he has injured feet, plus all of his bags to carry.


Winter is not yet over and there are people stuck in store doorways until dawn, then they are forced to walk the streets to find shelter. This forced way of life is the cause of many homeless people's sicknesses.


Not having nutrients or being stuck in soaked clothing from pouring rain then sleeping on wet cold concrete is what is happening all around us. The homeless people that are being affected are not strangers, they are the people you see driving by the FWY, sleeping in an underpasses or near shelters. Offering an extra sweatshirt, a sandwich, a smile at least could really help someone out in a hard time!


These streets do not have to be mean, they do not have to be cold and most certainly they do not have to be hungry. Please contact us about how you can help our fight against hunger!

Week 31 and 32

I'm combining the post from the last two weeks because I accidentally deleted the photos from week 31's trip. It was unfortunate, we had some interesting pictures planned.



In the last few weeks, the police came by the blanket fort area and cleared the area out. We don't know where the people have gone, but we heard that asked our regulars that were in the alley a block down to clear the area out as well. The people have spread out to other parts of the open street instead of being tucked away in the middle of the alley together.

During week 31, we started early in the day. Since the shops were open, we weren't able to find all of our regulars who wait until the shops close down to set up their sleeping arrangements. So for week 32, we went later in the evening during dinner time and we were able to find everyone. When Mere and I first started doing Lunch Bunch, we would do it in the evening, after work so some of the people we frequent can only be found in their night spots. We don't mind driving around the area to look for them during the day, though. Sometimes we are successful.

Lunch Bunch Print Auction Issues

We would like to apologize to the couple people who haven't received their print from the Lunch Bunch auction. We've made attempts to contact the artists that were supposed to mail their prints to the winners, but they seem to have changed their minds and are ignoring our emails. There's really nothing else we can do on our end so we will issue refunds to the winners and make sure ALL the prints we auction off in the future are in our hands.

Week 30

This is the second week in a row we have had a wonderful volunteer! Thank you Stephanie for coming to town to help out with Lunch Bunch!

Like always we started Lunch Bunch with a quick trip to Smart & Final.


Ana and Stephanie picked out the best produce, meats and bread that we could find.


Next it was off to create sandwiches. It was great to have an extra set of hands in the kitchen.


While Ana and I were slicing and dicing Stephanie was laying down the cheese and mustard.


Great job on the mustard!



Instead of adding cucumbers to the sandwich this time we added some fresh spinach. It gave the sandwiches great color, vitamins and freshness.


Stephanie couldn't go to deliver the lunches with us, but she did an excellent job helping us, we really appreciate all her hard work! Thanks Stephanie!


Then it was off to downtown with Ana. We made 24 lunches this week and were excited to start handing them out. We drove passed the blanket community and it was not there. The blankets were removed and all the people were gone. Next in another familiar area, the people living there had relocated. Luckily we were told where one of our friends had moved to.

This particular person always lets us know the situation of the area. She was there with an older gentleman sleeping just a few feet away from her. She told us it was her uncle and that they have both been sick from the rain. All of her blankets that she normally shields herself from the cold with were soaked. As a result of the rain and wet blankets she had "a touch of hypothermia". She has some health issues that she has let us know about, we appreciate how honest she is with us. When she tells us of her medical history and the things she has dealt with for many years it helps us to know how we can customize her lunch.

The more we gain the trust of our regular Lunch Bunchers the better informed we are and the more we can help with specific issues. We can really feel just how important our weekly meals and visits are.

This week we handed out the lunches a bit later than we have in the past few weeks. In some ways it is better during the day, more people are out, more light and a bit less stressful. On the other hand in the evening we know usually where all of our friends are. Knowing where someone stays for the night makes it much easier to deliver the meals. Sometimes if we are too early we miss some very important people. This week was nice to have a dinner service and see some sought after faces.

Thank you again for all your help our fabulous volunteers!

Week 29

This week Lunch Bunch was lucky enough to have two amazing volunteers! Greg and Aimée were so lovely to help us make soup lunches. A huge thanks to them for their hard work!

We made a beef and vegetable soup. It was great that the beef was on sale buy 1 get 1 free!



Once I bought all of the ingredients it was time to get them home and chop away! I trimmed all the fat from the meat and cubed it.







There was a lot of meat, but we needed enough for fifty 16oz soup containers. Next I put the cubed meat in a slow cooker to get it nice and tender. This cooked the night through.





The next morning I began to prepare the soup. I chopped up the veggies then added them to the broth, seasoning and meat.








Ana and Greg stopped at Smart & Final to get the rest of the supplies for the lunch while the soup was cooking.



The soup had 8 different vegetables and lots of savory meat!

Ana and Greg started putting the soup into 16 oz containers.



The lunch consisted of 2 oranges, a roll, a sweet treat(Greg's wonderful addition) and of course the soup.



Aimée arrived just in time for bagging the lunches. She set up the paper bags so that we can efficiently put the water and snacks together.




We opted to keep the soup in hot bags.




After we were all loaded up, we hit the road to start handing out the food. Greg and Aimée were amazing! They were both so eager to start handing things out.


Greg was so outgoing and warm that everyone was very responsive to him. His Spanish also came in handy. Thank you Greg for you help and hard work.

It was a treat for Ana and I to finally get to meet Aimée in person. She was popping in and out of the car to hand out lunches, it was great! Thank you for working with us and the support you have given!

The Lunch Bunchers from Week 29!