MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Local residents donate food, blankets to homeless.
Cupertino resident Ming Cheng, right, organized a food and blanket drive for homeless people in San Jose and Cupertino encampments. Cheng, who volunteers for the Palo Alto veterans hospital, is shown here with a fellow volunteer, left, and a resident of a homeless encampment on Roberts Avenue, at the back of Kelley Park near the Viet Heritage Garden in San Jose.
As a volunteer for the Palo Alto veterans hospital, Cupertino resident Ming Cheng was shocked to discover the level of homelessness in the heart of Silicon Valley. So, he and some friends decided to do something to help residents of local homeless encampments.
I was shocked by their condition,” Cheng says. “I can’t imagine that in such a rich country as the United States. there are still people living in such condition. So, I had the idea of helping them.”
Cheng and a group of volunteers first brought food to a homeless encampment on Roberts Avenue, at the back of Kelley Park near the Viet Heritage Garden in San Jose.
“There were about 80 tents,” Cheng says. “It is one of the biggest and famous homeless camps in San Jose, but they said the city is going to move them away.
“We found that they were so happy to get our food,” he added. “Then we decided to collect blankets for them, too.”
To create a better donation pipeline for their ef for ts, the volunteers formed t he nonprof it North American Love and Dedication Association.
“We got a warm response from the community,” Cheng says. “We (also) got a lot of blankets and food from the community.”
On Nov. 28 seven volunteers set out with four cars and a van fully loaded with blankets and food. They delivered these donations to the Roberts Avenue homeless camp as well as encampments at Felipe Avenue and Story Road and along the Guadalupe River in San Jose. In Cupertino they dropped off food and blankets to homeless living along Wolfe Road in Cupertino, and at Interstate 280 and Stevens Creek Boulevard.
In all, Cheng says, they gave out about 200 and more than $1,000 worth of food, including about 200 canned items.