By CLAUDIA KOERNER
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
LAGUNA BEACH – Like so many who run fast-growing enterprises, Sita Helms can rarely finish a sentence before her phone rings. She excuses herself, even though she's just arrived for a meeting. She apologizes as she steps away, but the call can't wait.
Sita Helms loads a delivery truck with donations with volunteer Luther Castro.
CLAUDIA KOERNER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
To get involved, visit thehelpinghandworldwide.org or call 949-499-4476
As businesslike as she sounds, Helms, 50, isn't leading a small business or a big business or any business at all. Her work is charity, the Helping Hand Worldwide, which works to feed the hungry in a stretch of Orange County where, on the surface, it might seem that hunger isn't a big problem.
Sadly, Helms' business is booming.
MANY ROLES
It's a sunny, spring Friday. By 8 a.m. Helms has ushered her two daughters to middle school and high school and hustled herself to a parking lot in South Laguna, where one of the three Helping Hand delivery trucks is parked.
But before she can climb out of her own car, the Blackberry is buzzing.
A grant application is due later today and the volunteer helping her write that application is calling from out of town. They discuss what's left to be done before submitting the request for funding.
Finally, when she clicks off that call, Helms switches away from her role as chief executive. Running a charity means wearing many hats and, as she turns the truck's ignition and hears a diesel engine growl to life, Helms takes on a new role – delivery driver.
In part, Helping Hand fills a wholesaler's role among local charities. Helms and her crew get excess food from grocery stores and other corporate sponsors, and deliver it to 14 food banks. Those food banks, in turn, get food to people who might otherwise go hungry. Helping Hand also plays a more direct role, getting food to people with living in low-income apartments, to military families, and to schools.
When the group began in 2004, Helms and other volunteers paid for most of the organization's needs out of pocket. Helms, whose background is in real estate, says she was happy to help because she sensed a need and because, well, she could.
But in the six years since, Helms has seen the operation expand. Even in upscale south Orange County – as she drives her truck past houses valued at multiple millions of dollars – hunger has grown. So have her expenses. This year, the charity is delivering some eight tons of food a day. Just the insurance and maintenance for the three trucks runs about $45,000 a year.
To stay in a business that brings in zero revenue, Helms finds it necessary to use public grants and community gifts and, yes, her own money.
And there's more growth in the works.
Helms says Helping Hand needs a warehouse, a place with space for walk-in refrigerators. Also, she says, a forklift would be nice, taking on the work of loading and unloading pallets of food, something now done by hand. And, ideally, Helms says, the upgraded version of Helping Hand would have room for a thrift store, an outlet that would help provide a steady income to help pay for overhead.
Though the workload has increased dramatically over the years, Helms sticks to her original goal of never turning food away while someone is in need.
"It's easy to place food."
LUXURIOUS HUNGER
The first stop of the day is Trader Joe's, where Helms and a volunteer fill the back of the truck with bags of bread, vegetables, fruit and flowers. In between lifting crates Helms gets another call, this time from another volunteer who had received some good news from his doctor.
After talking animatedly for a few minutes, Helms returns to the truck.
"What a relief he's not sick," she says.
Illness is what pushed Helms into charity work.
In 1984, she was working selling homes and a retired neighbor, a military man, asked her to look at his house. When she returned to his house a few days later, she found the man sitting the same chair where she'd last seen him. He was dehydrated and confused. He'd had a stroke. And, it turned out, Helms was the only person checking on him.
She made some phone calls and connected the man with medical help and, later, Meals on Wheels.
That year, Helms started volunteering to work at Meals on Wheels.
"He kind of threw me in a whole different realm," Helms says of the man she first helped.
The lesson Helms took away was simple – need and isolation can go unrecognized, even in seemingly comfortable communities. She calls it "secrets behind closed doors," explaining that pride and hunger sometimes coexist.
"People are embarrassed to say they're in need."
NO ONE EATS ALONE
Back in the truck and, yes, Helms' phone is ringing.
She balances the Blackberry carefully on the steering wheel and talks through the phone's speaker.
The conversation is about how to pick up a pallet of 700 cartons of eggs from a Mission Viejo grocery store. Over several more calls, Helms carefully navigates the Pacific Coast Highway traffic, finally driving to the Top of the World neighborhood. There, she drops off the donated flowers and bread to teachers at Thurston Middle School.
Later today, she says, she'll be delivering food to seniors at a low-income apartment complex. But they tend not to eat much artisan bread. The teachers at Thurston welcome the high-end breads that often are out of their budget. The flowers, Helms adds, are just to make the teachers smile.
"A happy teacher is a happy 30 kids," Helms says.
She leaves the donations on the curb as thankful staff members tote them inside.
Skillfully maneuvering the truck down curvy, hillside roads, Helms drives back toward Coast Highway. She honks and waves at two ladies out for a morning walk. By the time she backs the truck into the loading area at South Laguna Albertsons, she's found a volunteer willing to load eggs between regularly scheduled deliveries.
With the truck reloaded with donations from Albertsons, the last stop of the day is a low-income senior housing complex.
As food is set out on tables for residents to "shop" from, Helms jokes with volunteers and compliments an elderly woman's hat. She makes sure each of the residents waiting in line gets a little extra food. That way, Helms says, they can have a neighbor over for dinner. No one, she says, should have to eat alone.
"Then you get the sort of community where people start to look after each other."
Contact the writer: ckoerner@ocregister.com or 949-454-7309
Her Helping Hands Deliver Aid at Home and Abroad
The Laguna Beach Independent
December 12, 2008
by William Hagel
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Sita Helms, founder of the non-profit Helping Hand Worldwide, collects food at the Laguna Niguel Trader Joe's for distribution to the Laguna Beach Resource Center, one of 43 organizations she assists with Helping Hand. Staff photo by Courtenay Nearburg |
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Watching Sita Helms roll up her sleeves and load the meat and produce at the local Trader Joes is not the same as watching someone shop. For one thing, she's at the loading dock making sure a pickup truck fills up with enough to feed a small army.
And that was just the beginning of her day. In 1984 Helms gave up her appraising property and real estate sales to take care of the poor and needy. As a kid from a single mom, who worked in a grocery store, Helms saw thousands of pounds of food being wasted. From her on the job experience, she knew how to tap a resource at the stores. A stint in Chile as a foreign exchange student developed another skill, useful in cajoling the Spanish-speaking grocery truck drivers. She said small kindnesses to everyone connected with her efforts pay off in big ways. As a gesture, she passed out boxes of caffeinated candy bars to the young men wrapping the goods she was picking up in plastic. Laguna Beach, an affluent city by most measures, is the most surprising recipient for her services. The 72 residents of the low-income Vista Aliso apartments have much better nutrition now, according to Helms. "Before we started serving them," she said, "some of them were kind of gray. Now they're nice and pink." She describes kids she's run into that never owned their own ball or doll and a girl wearing shoes that should have been thrown out years ago. "I found a pair sitting out in an alley for free and got them to her," Helms said. Helms' 95-strong, all volunteer Helping Hand Worldwide organization collected an estimated $1.5 million in donations during 2008 from Trader Joes, Albertsons, Big Lots, and Pavilions to benefit 43 organizations. Recipients include Camp Pendleton's 5th Marine Regiment, local food banks, senior centers, HUD housing in Laguna Beach, and schools serving low-income families. Worldwide aid goes to Iraq where U.S. soldiers distribute Helping Hand goods to children; clothes and books go to orphanages in Ensenada, Mexico; a variety of items ends up in a small village in Guatemala; and donated medical supplies find their way to the Equity House Clinic in Hopkins Village in Belize. Helms pointed out that the persons working in the back end of the store need training to keep the food safe for consumption, and that requires special handling. "The biggest thing is training staff," Helms said. A pet project involving Marines called Operation Baby Shower supports military wives who need a start for their families. Yvette Heinze of Camp Pendleton said, "It was a fantastic event, and it meant so much to all of us whose husbands are so far away." Don Campbell, who has volunteered in Helm's crew for three years, is a retired firefighter. Now, he works four days a week picking up goods in his pickup, filled recently at Trader Joes. He admires the store's management for making the effort to donate unsold goods. "It's easier for the store to throw it away," he said. "They invest in people to scan and process and wrap it in plastic." Donations can be arranged by calling Sita at 949 499- 4476, or eMailing her at Sita@theHHWW.org .Robin Hood Meets Mother Teresa
By Aimee Greenberg
Laguna! Life and People magazine May 2003
The Year is 1984...
A prophetic year for many, including George Orwell, Sita Helms and a little old man named Stu.
Sita was in the business of real estate. Stu was a neighbor who needed to sell his home. What Sita didn't know was that Stu was starving.
"It never entered my mind that a person eight doors down from me could be hungry--not in my neighborhood, impossible," said Sita. "One Sunday evening, I stopped by to say hi and all was well. Monday afternoon, I popped my head in and there he was, sitting in the same chair he had been in the night before." Stu was dehydrated and had suffered a stroke.
Crossing the threshold into one man's desolate world forever changed the course of Sita Helm's calling, as well as the fate of a thousand hungry mouths to follow. 1984. The year Sita Helms abandoned real estate to feed and clothe the poor. It started with the government supported Meals on Wheels program. Sita helped raise funds, sat on the board of directors and started delivering food to 16 people.
"Fourteen out of the sixteen had nothing," said Helms. "In one day, you could be the only person this client sees, or you could be the last person they see," she added. Sita started approaching bakeries, butchers and produce shops for extra food for her clients. Soon thereafter, these local merchants began phoning her with news of extra food for twenty houses. Thus came the transition from Meals on Wheels to The Helping Hand, a grass-roots, non-profit outreach program, whose focus is to combat hunger and poverty "while spreading cheer in our communities."
Sita Helm's Helping Hand was born in 1997. She is aided by her co-worker, Lilian Mayer a Scottish women in her early sixties. Initially, Mayer answered an ad for a caregiver for Helm's father-in-law, but was shortly thereafter seduced by Sita's zealous commitment to the war against poverty behind the Orange curtain of opulence. Helping Hand provides food, toys, clothes, books and furniture for those in need. The organization works with and has the support of local food banks, churches, stores, senior centers, schools and social workers.
According to Helms: "This is a humanitarian effort in our own backyard to stamp out hunger and poverty that many don't even realize exists. They are invisible," Sita says. "Look closely at the woman and child at the bus stop. You'll see the child's shoes are three sizes too big. Look closely into the shanty off route 133, where there's no running water and fifteen people squeeze into two rooms." As a non-profit entity, Helping Hand can instantly bring resources to a family in need, without adhering to the red tape of a county or statewide bureaucracy.
All this--and safe parks, too!
Somewhere in between peddling Meals on Wheals and lending a Helping Hand, Sita Helms yearned for another cause. Feeling dissatisfied with the physical demise and the safety hazards of her local (South Laguna) Village Green Park, she telephoned City Hall. Six months passed, and still no return call. Taking matters into her own hands, Sita showed up at City Hall and heard the plea of budgetary poverty on behalf of the city.
"I called the Orange County Register and asked them to do a story on the decline of city parks in Laguna Beach. Suddenly, the City asked me to study the design components of the local parks, with the intention of revamping Village Green to emulate the structure of my park choice." Along the way, she became a volunteer appointee on the City's Recreational Department.
Sita discovered hazardous conditions in all of the parks and told the City Council: "Replace the rotting parts in all of the parks throughout the City." Sita's Village Green Park was refurbished after four years. Moms 4 Safe Parks is a tandem non-profit organization generated from the Village Green incident in 1999. Sita and her Moms collective follow the park project from inception through completion and maintenance.
A day in the life of Sita
Sita is up and running before 7:30 every morning, when she drops her children (Callista 5, Malia 6) off at their respective schools in San Juan and San Clemente. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, she picks up donations from Albertson's and Trader Joe's and delivers the merchandise to the food bank at the Mission in San Juan. Afterwards, she delivers food to the Teen Parenting Program at the Adult School in San Juan, where the youngest of the 21 teen mothers is 10 years old.
On Thursdays, Sita delivers food to 250-300 people at a food bank behind Ocean Hills Church in San Juan. Helping Hand also provides flowers that are donated to teachers and their staff at seven schools and two senior centers. On Tuesday mornings, Lilian and Sita make tuna and egg salad sandwiches for the organization's fifteen unsolicited volunteers. In the afternoon, Sita retrieves her two girls and returns home to sling hash for the babes and happy husband Henry Helms. Obla di, Obla da--life goes on--life goes on.
Beyond Borders
Orange County offers up a microcosmic slice of American society at large and, in turn, mirrors a global economy walking the tightrope between the ruling class above and the poverty class underfoot. Cities such as Laguna and Newport dominate the culture, absconding the poor stepsisters in neighboring communities such as Santa Ana, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. Similarly, there is a gross disparity between typical American lifestyle and the tenuous existence of our Central and South American sisters and brothers. No one understands this incongruity better than Sita Helms, who says with absolute conviction about Helping Hand: "One day we will touch all corners of the world."
Sita not only talks the talk, but she walks the walk. Helping Hand extends beyond its borders to provide toys and clothes for orphanages in Tijuana and Rosarita. A group of local fisherman travel annually to Cabo San Lucas to play Santa Claus at Christmas. The organization furnishes clothes and essentials to a small village in Guatamala, where Amelia, the town midwife, can now wrap her thirty newborns a month in blankets, rather than newspaper. In addition they supply goods to children in Columbia and Iraq. On a more personal note, the Helms family funds the schooling of six-year-old Magdalena Rosalinda Lopez, through their annual $250.00 contribution to Shela Aid in Guatamala.
In the world according to Helms, poverty can be cured only through community involvement. "If you know someone with overflowing closets, connect them to the person who has nothing in their cupboard. We could feed most of the world with the food we throw away in the United States."
Reality Collides With Dashed Expectations
By SUZIE HARRISON
Laguna Beach Independent
March 27, 2009 Staff photo by Ted Reckas
A three-year-old surveys the Resource Center, where her mother came to supplement their pantry. The family moved from Laguna to a shared mobile home in Lake Forest a year ago.
With the crackle and smell of sautéing onions in the background, a fill-in chef skillfully danced between stove and countertop, where he chopped, sliced and prepared a meal.
His wife sat nearby, rolling a stroller gently to keep their baby girl slumbering. While the couple felt at home making a meal behind the closed doors at the Laguna Relief and Resource Center, outside the walls are a different reality.
Laguna Resource Center is experiencing a three-fold increase in requests for aid from families since the recession hit full force beginning a year ago, reflecting an influx of visitors from every race and across socio-economic boundaries.
Among those seeking help are folks like the young couple, who prepared lunch for eight or so other down on their luck clients. He grew up in Laguna and graduated from Laguna Beach High School, but left recently because of economic circumstances. They declined to be identified, fearing the stigma of accepting help.
Staff photo by Ted Reckas
Another Laguna Beach native who declined to be identified peruses the shelves at the Resource Center.
Laguna resident Sita Helms, executive director of the Helping Hand Wordwide, provides surplus food to the resource center and thirteen regional food banks with donations from 21 stores.
"What's really scary, people that used to be well off are afraid to come to food banks; people might see them," Helms said. "Those who are hit real hard were previously considered well off.
Many of those clinging to an unfamiliar economic rung are showing up at the Resource Center, which offers assistance without inquiries about eligibility.
"We get new people who are very embarrassed having to come here," said volunteer Tony Rogers. They include middleclass people who have been employed for years. "I spoke to one person who was with the same company for 13 years. He was told in December that it was good and all the lay-offs were done now, and then a week ago, he gets laid-off."
Many once high-income jobs in the housing market have disappeared as the real estate bubble deflated.
"Construction company owners are now the construction workers. Realtors, mortgage brokers, tile layers, contractors, white collar and blue collar can't even get a job; it is devastating in every sector," Helms said.
Serving the meal he carefully prepared, the man who was born at South Coast Medical Center and grew up in Laguna, moved to a shared trailer out-of-town. Laid-off over a year ago, he lost his construction business and can't find work anywhere.
"What really sucks right now, I'm willing to go to McDonald's and Carl's Jr. and they won't give me a job. They're afraid I'll go back to construction," he said.
Day labor jobs are helping him make ends meet as well as the occasional construction job. "I'll go down to the day labor site and hold up a sign that says 'white boy with tools and a resume.' It works every once in awhile. There isn't any work, period," he said.
Last July, his family had to start scrounging to make ends meet, his wife said.
"I'm a LBHS graduate; you never think this is going to happen to you," he said.
Another Laguna Beach native, a woman in her 30s with a three-year old, is looking through the center's available inventory. She is with a friend, who is also shopping for her family. Both women looked like they could be PTA members. Maybe they are. Both refused to identify themselves.
The toddler's mother said her husband still has a construction job, but she recently lost her job after a decade. "I've been trying to find work, but everybody has been affected. Our rent is so high. My paycheck contributed and was important."
While she willingly accepts contributions to feed her family, the mother also continues to make contributions of outgrown baby clothes, willing to help another family.
Many Laguna residents still seem unaware readily available resources exist. "I see a lot of people suffering; they don't know where to turn." said Helms, mentioning a cardiologist, who is seeing a four-fold increase in male patients asking for antidepressants and suffering anxiety attacks.
Despite the harsh economic climate, the center remains welcoming. Volunteers know many of the visitors by name, making them feel at home. Volunteer Andy Siegenfeld's perpetual smile is infectious, eliciting laughter from those understandably discomfited by their circumstances. "We get five to 10 new families a day," he said.
Last month, Rogers said the center hit a new record, with 88 families coming in a single day. "It was the busiest day by far ever. Every Monday in the last four months sets new records in daily attendance."
For more info about Laguna Relief and Resource Center, call 497-7121 or check out www.lbhomeless.org.
Cars Line Up for a Patriotic Washing
The Dana Point 5th Marine Regiment Support will hold a car wash fundraiser from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, at the parking lot of the South Shores Church, 32712 Crown Valley Parkway in Dana Point.
While Marines promise to scrub cars squeaky clean, patrons can partake in a barbecue feast prepared by Harbor Grill as well as receive a Marine Corps pin. Cookies and drinks provided by the Helping Hand Worldwide. Marine, police and fire vehicles will be on display for the enjoyment of kids and adults.
All donations benefit the Dana Point 5th Marine Regiment Support Group, dedicated to helping local Marines and their families, whether deployed or at Camp Pendleton.
