HELPING HAND WORLDWIDE INC

Our strategic plan: HHWW Team reaches behind closed doors of poverty to serve our recipients directly in the neighborhoods where they live, work and go to school. Helping Hand Worldwide is unique in that we provide weekly food distribution to the heart of the communities we serve. Our Mobile Refrigerated Food Pantry trucks deliver free, nutritious fresh food and hygiene supplies daily to thirteen cities in Orange County and to two sites for Military Families who serve our country living at and around Camp Pendleton.

Helping Hand Worldwide’s success is measured daily when the truck pulls up into a community to cheering seniors. Our programs cannot be measured purely on the number of people who have received food, the impact of empowering a community from within by infusing goods and fresh wholesome food creates hope. The resources provide a foundation within the community encouraging social connections and bonds communities together making them stronger as a whole. The impact of connecting a young military mother with a support group or an isolated senior connecting with her neighbors is immeasurable to us but life changing to them.
At the end of our fiscal year in January we can compare report results to those of the previous year. Our measurement of success is based on our daily and weekly reporting requirements, goal assessments and feedback from our staff, volunteers and most importantly, our recipients.

Helping Hand Worldwide makes every penny count, we are small but mighty. We provide services to the community with minimal staff, our board and 250 volunteers, who contribute over 29,000 hours annually, this time is valued at $500,348. Our team has not missed a day in the field serving those in need including during the pandemic, our community depend on us now more than ever with the increase in inflation and the cost of food.
We rely on development, the process of creating and enhancing relationships with potential donors to attract long term partners. We have maintained core donors through partnering an open invitation to visit and participate and volunteer at our sites. We believe seeing first-hand the work we do and the impact we make within the communities is unforgettable. Our Board of Directors all volunteer their time and expertise. They connect us with possible donors, assist us with fundraising, donate, source goods for us to distribute or volunteer in the field with us. Our CEO and her assistant work in the field as well as find time to research and apply for grant funding. HHWW team provides emergency assistance daily and physically work within the community at the food distributions.

Drive Through Food Distributions: A drive through distribution takes three times longer than our pre-pandeimic foodbanks and requires detailed planning and extensive volunteers’, muscle to unload the product, organize, sort, pre bag and pack into waiting cars. Additionally, we deal with traffic control, heat and exhaust fumes as up to two hundred cars line up at one location. Due to the high turnout at these events we are utilize teams volunteer teams to manage traffic, secure the perimeter prevent walk ups and assist with loading boxed food into waiting cars.

Camp Pendleton: serving our military families we have partnered with the Cities of Oceanside, and the Outlets in San Clemente to provide drive through food banks. In Oceanside the numbers of attendees increase weekly, on April 21st over 200 cars line up, it was heart breaking when we ran out of food and had to turn the last 60 cars away. Prior to COVID 19 a young Mother with 3 or 4 preschool children would select food at a market style food bank. Now we are seeing cars with multi-generational families. Stressed parents with multiple bored, hungry, children wait in line in their cars. We pass out fruit and hold a best or goofiest smile competition to help entertain the children. We collaborate with Coastal Roots who provide organic fresh produce and Cushman & Wakefield to Assit with additional fresh food, Diapers, wipes and period supplies

Senior and Low-income Communities: We are currently provide in community food banks to seniors at various low income communities in Irvine, Santa Anna, Anahime, Lake Forest, Yorbalinda, Orange, Dana Point, San Clemente. In the existing low-income communities that we serve the number of households requiring assistance has tripled since Covid as multigenerational have moved in together.