LOS ALAMITOS : Families Receive Aid for Most Basic Needs

Myldred Jones is an 83-year-old who, having lived through the Depression, knows what it’s like to have boiled potatoes for dinner night after night. During World War II, she worked in the Navy’s welfare department, and hungry families were not an uncommon sight.

Even with that experience, she was unprepared for “the poverty in the streets” in the ‘90s that she has seen. “There’s so much poverty, it’s heartbreaking,” Jones said in an interview. “You won’t believe it’s happening in these communities, but it is.”

Jones heads We Care, a Los Alamitos-based nonprofit organization supported by local churches and social service clubs, which provides a variety of services for transients, indigent families, and those who need short-term assistance, such as temporary housing or rent money.

We Care, at 10941 Reagan St. in Los Alamitos, also provides food, clothing, gasoline money and even diapers. It was formed last year and is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m, and on Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.

Jones said that despite the single-family homes on quiet, tree-lined streets in Los Alamitos, Seal Beach and Rossmoor, more and more families need year-round assistance for the most basic needs.

“This (recession) is affecting the middle class. People who don’t ordinarily ask for help are doing it this time,” said Jones, who works at the agency 10 hours a day. “These are very proud people, and it’s difficult for them to seek help. But when you lose your job, you’ve nowhere else to go.”

For Thanksgiving, We Care gave away food baskets to 250 families. The food was collected by local churches and students at Los Alamitos High School.

Volunteer coordinator Joanna Logan said that We Care mostly helps families on welfare but that there are also the working poor and some instances in which formerly affluent people--those who have lost jobs--have sought help.

The welfare families “come to us around the 16th of each month when their welfare checks start to run out,” said Logan, a 67-year-old retired schoolteacher, who has been a volunteer since last year.

Among the working poor is the family of Maria, who was at We Care last week to pick up some canned goods and diapers for her older sister’s baby.

Maria, 14, is one of seven children of Raymond and Juana, an immigrant family from Mexico receiving monthly food assistance. Raymond works in a printing shop, but the wages are not enough to meet his family’s needs.

“Without their help, it would be very tough on us,” Maria said.

Maria’s cousin, Claudia, 20, was also there to pick up diapers and food for her baby.

Another family in need belonged to construction worker Jack and his wife, Caroline. His wages don’t stretch far enough to support seven children who range in age from 2 to 13.

On Oct. 29, the family received two bags of food and $10 for gasoline.

According to We Care records, in the last week of October alone the organization helped 20 families or individuals. The litany included a family of six who received two bags of groceries, a homeless family with two children who obtained $5 for gasoline, a woman with a child who received diapers, and one family whose father was unemployed and attending Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. That family received temporary shelter for 60 days.

Logan describes her experience with the group as “depressing at times but very rewarding. It feels good when you can help people get up on their feet again.”