We Fill in the Gaps Where Other Service Providers Leave Off.
We serve 240 adult poor each week — mainly the elderly and disabled who have difficulty reaching services in Skid Row* Directly from our car windows, much like an ice-cream truck, we offer basic human needs with no agenda, just pure giving.
Your Donations Buy:
Water
Drinking water is the most in-demand item we provide. Without it, the extreme poor drink and bathe from fire hydrants.
Not one single water fountain exists on the outskirts where the permanent homeless live in encampments.
Every cell in the human body depends on water, and without it we cannot function properly. This is why hydration is essential.
We hand out nearly 1,000 bottles every month.
CLAUDIA HOPES TO BE A TEMPORARY RESIDENT OF Skidrow. we’re here to help support her.
Wipes
There are no real public toilets on L.A. streets. One bank of “beach-style” bathrooms exist to serve the nearly 13,000 adults that live in the permanent encampment known as Skid Row.
Most of these poor don’t live anywhere near an actual toilet. Buckets are their bathrooms.
This is why the second-most crucial item we supply is hygiene in the form of body wipes, dental kits, feminine products, toilet paper and more.
Every week, volunteers hand-create bags of cleaning wipes to aid in basic hygiene that all adults deserve.
Emergency Protein
For the homeless, hunger is an ongoing issue.
The protein we provide staves off starvation and fuels both the body and the brain.
We provide portable protein in the form of healthy, cold string cheese*, protein bars and snack packs that are easy to hand out.
There are food lines and pop-up buffets in the heart of Skid Row. We travel to the outskirts of the area, where hundreds of the disabled, elderly and mentally-challenged live.
We provide a consistent flow of protein to this specialized community — the elderly and disabled — that find it difficult to reach traditional food sources.
ben was challenged..we eased a bit with blankets/tarps/food/socks/hygiene supplies
Socks/Tarps
We hand out fresh new socks every single week to hundreds of extreme poor.
They tell us socks are more important than shoes.
Tarps provide very basic protection from the harsh summer and cold winter storms. We hand these out as often as we can, along with tents.
We regularly hand out tarps and double our efforts during L.A.’s hot summers and rainy seasons.
Feminine Hygiene Adult Diapers
30% of the people who sleep on Skid Row's streets each night are women.
‘Period poverty’ is a real and frustrating issue for Skid Row’s females.
35% of the street poor are elderly and/or disabled.
We provide much-needed feminine products, as well as adult diapers for many of our struggling street poor.
It’s not easy growing old when no one in your life cares.
Clothing
We periodically hold clothing drives to gather used clothing: specifically bras, underwear, socks, shoes, hats, belts, umbrellas and blankets.
Beyond the obvious benefits that these donations bring — keeping our homeless friends warm, dry, and clean — we also offer the less fortunate a chance to give their limited wardrobes a little ‘refresh’, which is always appreciated.
* FDA protein guidelines suggest 15 grams for women and 18.6 grams for men per meal. We provide this weekly with two sticks of string cheese.
**Skid Row is a 54-block area in downtown Los Angeles that has become synonymous with homelessness and poverty. As of 2022, the area contains the largest stable population (about 4,200–8,000) of homeless in the U.S. and has been known for its condensed un-housed population since at least the 1930s.