80 years of public service

A leading provider of social services programs in Southern California, Lutheran Social Services of Southern California marked its 80th years of service on Dec. 13 with a short ceremony, a monthly grocery distribution to approximately 360 low-income families and a volunteer lun­cheon. Known as Project Hand, it was the first outreach project of Lutheran Social Services of Southern California beginning in December 1944. Project Hand is a program at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and stewarded b LSSSC. LSSSC was officially incorporated in 1946 as a nonprofit.

LSSSC Events & Media Engagement Coordi­nator Mark Wimberly is a part of the network of Lutheran Services in America.

“We were founded on Dec. 10, 1944, by a group of Lutheran pastors in San Diego when some of our boys were coming back from World War II. Without anything, these people came together to form a welfare commission, and apparently, they did some wonderful work. They ended up collaborating with more Lutheran pastors in Los Angeles, and before long we began getting offices in Southern California counties. Today we are in six counties here in Southern California. San Diego, Los Angels, Orange, Riverside, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties,” he said.

Wimberley said LSSC does everything from food pantries, temporary housing, shelter hous­ing, mental health counseling for students, sub­stance abuse counseling, and a “gamut” of social services for local communities.

“Our corporate mission is, ‘Ignited by faith, we live out God’s love by embracing, equipping and empowering vulnerable individuals, families and communities toward self-sufficiency,’” he said. “I like sharing that. It sounds like corporate jargon, but it is not. To us, it is the guiding principle in everything we do, which is why we go from county to coun­ty supplying different services. What they need in Ventura is not what they need in San Ber­nardino, which is not what they need in San Diego.”

Wimberly said the event was a gathering of the Chula Vista Project Hand, a food distribu­tion program, to commemorate LSSSC’s 80th year.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church Pastor Karla Halvorson said the church in “incredibly proud” of its longtime partnership with LSSSC and congratulates them on their 80th year of service.

“With support from Lutheran Social Services, Project Hand has consistently met the needs of the community for close to 50 years and is considered one of the largest food distribution programs in the county,” said Halvorson.

“We are commemorating that we have been doing this in some form or fashion since we started in San Diego, and we are in Chula Vista and San Diego proper with our Senior Companion Program. We are going to take some time and be grateful for it,” he said. “LSSSC is very active all over this part of the state.”

With support from the com­munity and community part­ners, LSSSC serves more than 30,000 individuals and fami­lies providing goods and ser­vices such as food pantries, hot meals, clothing, emergency vouchers for hotel, bus, gas, and utilities, housing and rent­al referrals, eviction preven­tion, prescription assistance, and holiday, school, or hygiene packs. LSSSC operated 40 spe­cialized programs supporting the aging and disabled, resourc­es for veterans, transitional and permanent affordable housing, mental health services, family services, disaster preparedness, and emergency response, and more.

For more information about Lutheran Social Services South­ern California, visit lsssc.org.