By Dianne Anderson

Growing up in Orange County, Msessie Hollis is well familiar with all the supposed upscale areas that house all the hidden homeless.

Her family was among them.

For that reason, she finds inner healing in helping others, especially this time of year. Her mother, now passed away, had issues with money mismanagement, and lost their grandmother’s house in Fullerton when she was only nine years old. She remembers the time clearly.

“We had downtime ourselves, we would sleep in the car, bus station, in shelters in Costa Mesa and in the car at the VA hospital, seven of us in a hotel room. It’s basically catering to my inner child that had to go through this, being homeless or without toys, it caters to both.”

Before she started her nonprofit, she fed the homeless regularly because she knew where to look, hunger and housing insecurity is a familiar experience. Today, she is a realtor on a solid foundation, but she said she still wants her children to be sensitive to the needs of others.

Together, they go out seeking who they can feed. Every month they scope out a different county. She said that one local doctor has offered to help with food baskets for distribution, but Hollis still mostly comes out of pocket.

Each year, Blessings Foundation Inc. serves about 1,000 people with clothes, shoes, and distributes 150 to 250 bags of food monthly. They also hosted a backpack drive earlier this year. She is based out of Anaheim, but works and partners with others in the Inland Empire and Long Beach.

This year, she has received toys from Spark of Love, and Toys for Tots. One lady in Rancho Cucamonga had toys that were collected for their church, but they didn’t have many needy children.

“She asked if they could give the toys to me and she has 60 to 100 toys,” she said. “It’s all word of mouth, and [accessing] whatever organizations are donating to other nonprofits.”

In Anaheim, this year she is distributing about 1,500 toys at an upcoming elementary school event.

Hollis said that it is a misconception to think of Orange County as well off, and that somehow people are not grappling with high levels of poverty and homelessness in one of the most expensive counties in the state.

If anything, it’s the opposite.

“I grew up in Orange County, and it was an issue for my family, and for me as a child,” she said. “Even now you drive down streets and you see homeless people lying in the street. You see the police obviously trying to run them off. With Anaheim being Disneyland, they don’t want tourists to see how bad it really is.”

In the county, she is serving many more Latinos than African Americans, but Blacks are still disproportionate within the general population. When she serves Long Beach, she said that the homeless are overwhelmingly Black.

“The ones we come across that line Long Beach Blvd, about 95% of the people in Long Beach that we see and feed are Black. We go to different cities each month, we pass out food blankets, clothes and shoes,” she said.

Her three boys, one is a special needs child with autism, is her main focus in serving the community. While they don’t understand her whole backstory or motivation, she feels it is important to start a family tradition of caring for others who are down and out.

She gets all the snacks lined up, the nonperishables, while she makes the sandwiches.

“They love it, they’re like my little assembly line, we drive around and it’s mommy can I give them the bag? They’ll give it through the window, and say okay, God bless you,” she said.

In other parts of the county, free Christmas events are now either selling out or going fast. Toy drives and free food are also available, but organizers are requesting early sign-ups. They also are calling on anyone who can afford it, to drop a toy or two off at the location.

On Saturday, December 9, the Winter Wonderland Toy Drive is hosting one toy per child from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The event hosts an Artificial Ice Rink for kids ages 6-13 years, health screenings, child haircuts, arts and crafts, raffles and food distribution. It will be held at Huntington Park Salt Lake Park, located at 3401 E. Florence Ave. in Huntington Park.

On Sunday, December 10, thousands have already registered with Families Together of Orange County nonprofit community center. Their event will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for their toy giveaway. They are calling for more volunteers to participate, and also have more slots open for the community.

To donate or volunteer with Blessings Foundation Inc., see https://blessingsfoundationinc.org/

To register for the Families Together event, see https://familiestogetheroc.org/christmas-together

For the Huntington Park event, register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/winter-wonderland-toy-drive-tickets-700474346627