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Friends Indeed says food pantry, women’s room are serving hundreds weekly; guest praises shelter services
Summary
At Pasadena’s mayor’s interfaith prayer breakfast, Friends Indeed CEO Rabbi Joshua Levine Greater said the nonprofit is serving roughly 775 households a week and is on track to spend $450,000 on rental assistance to prevent homelessness; a guest, Fiona, credited the organization with helping her regain stability after the fires.
Rabbi Joshua Levine Greater, CEO of Friends Indeed, told attendees at Pasadena’s interfaith mayor’s prayer breakfast that the nonprofit’s food pantry is serving an average of about 775 households a week and that the organization is on track to spend $450,000 this year on rental assistance to keep at least 85 households from becoming homeless.
"Everyone who comes through our doors in the months and years ahead, they will find compassion and dignity, respect, and love," Rabbi Levine Greater said, summarizing Friends Indeed’s mission and the range of programs the agency operates, from a food pantry to street outreach and a women’s day refuge.
Fiona, a guest who described becoming unhoused after recent fires, told the room that she found the women’s room through an online search and that the service had been “one of the brightest moments in my life during one of my hardest seasons.” She described staff and volunteers by name and credited the organization and a Trinity Lutheran Church safe-parking program with helping her move toward stability.
Key service figures cited by Friends Indeed at the breakfast included an average of about 45 guests per day at the women’s room, 280 unique first-time guests last year, 45 people housed so far this year through outreach, and a bad-weather shelter that opened roughly 40 nights and provided relief to 211 individuals. Rabbi Levine Greater also noted Friends Indeed has just over 30 staff members and many volunteer board members who also serve onsite.
The CEO asked attendees to support the nonprofit through donations and volunteering and noted ways to sign up or learn more were provided on tables at the event. The program emphasized a combined approach of immediate services (food, showers, laundry), street outreach to build trust, and eviction prevention to stop new episodes of homelessness.
Friends Indeed said its eviction-prevention and rental-assistance program aims to prevent homelessness before it starts: "If we want to solve homelessness, the number-one thing we can do is to not let people become homeless in the first place," Rabbi Levine Greater said.
The breakfast closed with thanks to volunteers and a reminder that the organization will continue to operate its programs as demand remains high.
