By Alison Munson
Daily Titan Staff Writer
Published: March 15, 2010

Since 1984, Families Forward has been providing support to families in crisis. In 2002, Cal State Fullerton’s Irvine campus joined the organization’s efforts with its own food drives in the spring and fall.

The Irvine campus is currently holding a food drive to support the participants of the Families Forward program, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to empowering families that have fallen into financial instability.

“I feel that it is our responsibility to take care of (people),” said Reneir Cruz, 26, a senior advertising major taking classes at the Irvine campus. “Just put ourselves in their shoes, meaning, if we were in their shoes, we’d want someone to take care of us.”

Food drives are a small portion of what Families Forward does to facilitate self-sufficiency in families. The organization has supported housing programs called “transitional homes,” back to school-assistance, career-coaching and life-skills counseling, all geared toward re-establishing families into their community.

For Robert Flores, the organization hits close to home. For a short time his family was a participant in the Families Forward programs.

“I’ve always given back to the organization because I believe strongly in their cause,” Flores said.

It was Flores who approached Families Forward in 2002 in search of a way to give back and ended up organizing the bi-annual food drives that go straight to what is called the “Food Pantry.”

“They serve a lot of families, and in order to keep their food bank full, they rely heavily on donations,” Flores said.

The Food Pantry is entirely dependent on what they receive from individuals and businesses to serve more than 150 families a week, he said. The Irvine campus donates approximately two to three boxes per drive but hopes to collect as many as 10, and with three weeks left to donate, there is still more time to accomplish that goal, Flores said.

“This food helps them to cover other monthly costs and regain financial stability,” he said.

Many of the families assisted by the program are homeless or near homelessness. Job loss, divorce and medical emergencies are among the top reasons why people end up out of their homes and into the streets, according to the Families Forward Web site. Mental illness and drug abuse account for only a small fraction of the homeless population.

“We live in a wonderfully rich country and it’s surprising that we do have homeless people or people that are really in need,” said Stephen Messina, 52, junior, finance major on the Irvine campus. “Somehow I just feel like it’s something that doesn’t need to be or something that should be really easily curable. We don’t see too many homeless people in Irvine. We’re just not really affected.”

Homelessness has become stereotyped, said Vanessa Gonzalez, 24, a graduate student enrolled in the Master’s of Business program at the Irvine campus.

“Sadly, I mean you wanna help them out and you wanna give them money, but there’s this stereotype that they’re just gonna take the money and use it for something else,” Gonzalez said.

Cruz agreed. “(Sometimes) I felt that it was just something they were doing on the side, I felt like just from their attire I could tell that they weren’t homeless. Most of the time I give the benefit of the doubt … and do my best to share as much compassion as possible.”

Though students are willing to help, many don’t know about the program or its cause, not even Gonzalez.

“If there’s enough information out there about what the food drive is for and whose gonna receive the items for the food drive, then they can know and feel that they’re gonna help out a good cause,” Gonzalez said. “But there has to be that information out there.”

Flores urges students to help any way they can and to commit to community service. Families Forward’s goal is to protect the innocent victims of circumstance, mainly the children of struggling families.

“Some people assume because the Irvine campus is in the city of Irvine … that there isn’t a need for services like Families Forward or food drives,” Flores said. “That belief is completely false. I hope students gain an awareness about their community and leave with the passion to continue their good efforts. Community service shouldn’t be a one day or one week event. It should be a lifetime plan and commitment.”

Although donating food seems like a small act and that not much can come out of it, the experience gives students a way to be a good person and do what’s right, Messina said.

“I think you can take away probably nothing much more than a great feeling of helping, doing something constructive or positive in the world,” Messina said. “You can walk away feeling like you did something good, like you made a difference in your small way.”

There are 26 transitional homes that the Food Pantry provides for. According to its annual report, 44 families were served last year and 83 of those family members were children.

At this time, the Food Pantry is looking for dried and canned foods, such as canned fruits, canned chicken and beef, boxed juice, canned or dried soup, rice and pasta. Donations can be made at the Irvine campus in Room IRVC-101 until March 26.