Like you and the entire world, for the past several months we’ve balanced COVID-19 worries, economic downturns and social unrest with hope and with the desire to do something meaningful.
Though our many JCC Cares volunteers have hunkered at home away from the Merage JCC and away from our numerous nonprofit partners, we have remained busy. We’ve been reaching out, and staying connected in a number of ways: collecting hundreds of masks, filling our food drive canisters with groceries, providing home cooked meals to shelters, and writing letters to the many heroes in our community. Thank you to all who have reached out and helped in this great time of need.
How You Can Help!
Of course, we are not done. Below you’ll find what is the latest on our list of how we are reaching out. We invite you to plug in where you can.
• We’ve added a second Red Cross Blood Drive on September 16. Blood saves lives and we are eager to be able to open our doors to help—in a very safe and healthy way.
• In Orange County the number of people who are experiencing food insecurity has skyrocketed. JCC Cares is hosting monthly food drives, collecting non-perishable food items (canned goods, pasta, etc.) for many of our nonprofit partners. You can drop-off with no-contact and physically distant from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. on August 11 as we help our vulnerable neighbors.
• Many of us are baking and cooking during the safer-at-home era. Bake and cook for shelter residents. On August 19, we are collecting dinner items to share a delicious home cooked dinner with 80 women at WisePlace, shelter in Santa Ana.
• Likewise, for those who are getting out of their houses (safely!), we continue to assemble food boxes for our county’s seniors at the OC Food Bank. Join us August 4 for our next OC Food Bank adventure. This is a great project for families and individuals. OC Food Bank takes great care in physically distancing volunteers. Masks are required.
• We’re busy re-imagining what our annual Dec 25 Day of Volunteerism will look like this year. We’ve been in touch with our partner nonprofits all over the county, and working to determine what their needs are now and what they expect in the December and more.
JCC Cares is balancing staying safe and healthy and supporting our many nonprofits partners and our community. As mandates and directives change, we will work with our partners to respond accordingly. We’re just figuring out how!
Visit www.jccoc.org for more ways you can help.
Now, more than ever, we’re all in it together!