The 12 ordinary sandwiches, spread with mayonnaise and topped with turkey, might not seem like much to most people. But for the food-insecure in the local community, those sandwiches could make the difference of overwhelming hunger and satisfying rejuvenation.
Twice since the start of the school year, Assistant Head of Upper Campus Crystal Davis has lead a small group of students in making sack lunches for Ojai’s unhoused community members. The lunches are dropped off and distributed through the Ojai Valley Family Shelter’s shower bus and lunch program, which provides a seasonal overnight shelter during the winter months, and a shower bus and sack lunch program in the the summer.
“We have kind of an ethical obligation to try and improve the lives of others,” said Davis of the small by important Upper Campus effort.
The Ojai Valley Family Shelter is a non-profit charitable organization that aims to help people in need in more ways than one.
The shelter offers a shower van service from April through November on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Many generous citizens stop by and donate food and other necessities for the unhoused through a food train.
“It’s important for people to have showers, it’s a basic human need,” said Ally Mills, the director of the family shelter.
Mills shares a unique understanding of the people she helps.
“I’ve been homeless when I was in my 20s, living up here in Ojai,” said the Ojai native, who aims to give back to other people because she relates to the difficulties that come without having a home.
The organization provides shelter locations from December to March during the cold season. The shelter offers people a safe place for people to put their possessions with warm meals and a place to sleep. During that time, the shelter provides movie nights where people staying there can come together and eat a warm meal cooked and served by different organizations and church groups.
Volunteers and donations are welcome at all times.
The shelter is currently located at the Ojai Grange and has been since the pandemic started. The site allows people a safe place to leave their belongings as they go off to jobs and tend to other responsibilities.
Many people throughout the Ojai community have affiliated themselves with the shelter and regularly drop off food and other necessities. Different church groups and organizations will prepare meals, and local businesses such as Bonny Lu’s Cafe and The Ojai Beverage Company will chip in sometimes, too.
Most donors have been helping the shelter since its inception in the early 90s.
“I don’t really have to notify anybody,” Mills said. “They just know.”
Ms. Davis has been involved with the shelter for years. She went from donating self-made pottery to a benefit concert to making regular donations to the organization. Eventually, she decided to get the school involved.
“We have volunteered in different ways as a school, and this summer, they were looking for people to provide sack lunches to give out at their Saturday shower service,” Davis said.
On their second night back to school, a small group of student leaders got together to make sack lunches, and Ms. Davis delivered those to the shelter the following morning.
“We made sandwiches, we packed the lunches and we had a lot of fun together,” said Davis, adding that with more volunteers from a bigger group of students and the help of student council, the school can make more donations regularly.
Since the school’s first donation, a second sandwich drop-off took place. At the end of that Saturday shower service, every sandwich made would have been taken by someone who stopped by. Twelve people walked away a little less hungry because of OVS students.
Junior Towako Hiramatsu, the Student Council’s Community Service Representative, aims to make Friday sandwich-making a regular event.
“I feel like in general people don’t feel like they have an opportunity to help,” she said, adding that monthly sandwich-making days gives all students a chance to give back to the Ojai community. “Making sandwiches is not a big deal for us, but it can change other people’s lives a lot.”