By Celebrating new and old traditions, Long Beach’s community has continued the season of giving by collecting toys and providing aid for local families.
Kicking off the season with a relatively new initiative is the Long Beach Department of Human and Health Service’s unhoused support drive-through, held on Dec. 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the department’s main facility center.
According to the department’s Public Affairs Officer, Jennifer Rice Epstein, the quarterly drive began in the Spring of 2023 after Long Beach city’s local homelessness was acknowledged as an emergency issue by the city council on Jan. 10, 2023.
The drive requests essential items including winter clothes, hygiene kits and canned food.
Monetary donations can be made digitally on the Long Beach Community Foundation’s website.
Physical and monetary donations go towards equipping the city’s Multi-Service Center.
The center provides a location where people in need can receive their mail, take showers, get connections to housing and receive direct donations.
“When the weather is dropping to the forties at night, that is dangerous enough to cause health issues,” Epstein said. “Hand warmers, socks, sweatshirts – those things that we can get to keep people warm during this time is hugely helpful.”
Alongside the drives, Epstein and her communications support group created a text hotline, where people in need can text “HOME.” or “HOGAR.” to 99411 to receive text alerts for local aid events.
A former journalist in Los Angeles and New York, Epstein said that her job at the department is to outline the important work that is being done and to be transparent to the public.
This year, the city of Long Beach had its first decrease in unhoused people in seven years, with 3,376 people experiencing homelessness on the morning of Jan. 25, 2024 as opposed to 3,447 the year prior. The state of emergency has also been called off.
Epstein said the City of Long Beach is special because people go above and beyond, citing an experience at a donation drive last summer when a little boy in the community asked for items to donate for his birthday and showed up with a huge cart load of donations.
“I can’t emphasize enough how much people care about the work that’s being done,” Epstein said. “I’ve lived here and I always had a favorable view of the city, but once I worked here I truly got to see the city from the inside. I saw how special it was.”
Another group giving back this season is the Friends of Long Beach Firefighters.
Since 1955, the Long Beach Fire Department has sought to provide toys for children in need through their “Spark of Love” Toy Drive in the month of December.
Unwrapped toys for the “Spark Of Love” Toy Drive were parked near the front of the stage during the Dec. 4 Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
The drive accepts monetary donations digitally and physical donations at local fire stations, according to Firefighter and Coordinator of “Spark of Love,” Will Nash.
From there, physical donations are taken to a warehouse, where they are sorted and shipped out to individual families and over 20 local organizations including the YMCA and the Interval House, which does work with domestic abuse survivors.
Another receiving location is Long Beach City College, which provides the toys for new, young mothers enrolled in the college.
Apart from the toys distributed by collaborating organizations, Nash said that over 400 individual families suggested by the Long Beach Unified School District and dispatched firefighters receive donations directly from the department.
During downtown Long Beach’s tree lighting on Dec. 4, the Long Beach Fire Department and ABC Channel 7 spoke on the “Spark of Love” Toy Drive and accepted gift donations. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Starting as a volunteer for the drive and fire department in 2000, Nash said the “Spark of Love” Toy Drive has grown every single year, with the department now having the funding to assign dedicated staff to the drive.
Their warehouse, Nash said, was previously a lawn mower repair shop which the team has turned into their own “Santa’s workshop.”
This was done with love, spit and polish, according to Nash.
“I have a nice little army counting on getting things done,” Nash said. “It’s nice to have a staff you can depend on that are passionate about getting the work done and helping people have a nice Christmas.”
Alongside growth and improvements, Nash said the drive has also expanded to provide humanitarian aid to families.
Monetary donations from the community go towards gift cards and shopping sprees on clothes, school supplies and essentials for families in need of aid.
“Every year I’m amazed by the amount of things that come in. We have a very generous community that gives and we have a very appreciative community that receives,” Nash said. “We see a lot of smiles and we get a lot of hugs.”
In addition to this season’s toy gifting, Long Beach State’s Staff Council, the Office of the President and the Division of Admin and Finance is sponsoring the 27th annual Bob Rodger’s Cherishing the Children Toy Drive until Dec. 6, 2024.
According to the university’s website, donations are given to local foster children through Los Angeles County and Family Services.
