Friday, February 14th, 2025
Photo Credits: Leslie Aguirre
"If I didn't get the food here, then I would starve," Rasiene Reece, AKA Pastor Rae, explains that this is a common phrase to hear from the organization's recipients. "There are less and less people out there giving out food," she continues, "it's hard for the...people out there."
Reece is the founder of the Women of Noble Character (WONC) in Victorville, CA, and is speaking about the clients she encounters each day at the pantry, where her organization is partnered with FARSB. This Community Partner pantry serves the City of Victorville, CA, and continues to alleviate hunger along with the rest of the FARSB community partner network.
The organization takes its lead from the bible verse, Prov. 31:10-31, which states the qualities of "women of noble character." They encourage women (and men) to uphold the high standard of care for others in line with this verse (Prov. 31:20) which also states that feeding the poor and housing the unhoused should be a top priority.
Divine Growth
This organization started in 2010 as a group of women meeting once a week for prayer and fellowship. As a way to help their community, they decided to start a free garage sale to give household items to those who need them. This grew rapidly and they began to see people deliver items to distribute, which began to include large items like mattresses and couches. This became much too big for their small group to take on.
Seeing the need in the community, the group decided to take their help directly to folks on the streets and began handing out meals to unhoused people. A Meal a Day Coalition came about from giving out meals and was a way for others to volunteer to sign up to distribute meals to unhoused individuals, which brings multiple nonprofits and churches together to help the community. Still to this day, this continues with the help of WONC.
Eventually, WONC began distributing other donated items needed by the unhoused such as clothing, hygiene items, and blankets. This led to them coming under the umbrella of the High Desert Community Foundation in 2013 to assist in meeting the needs of this service. After several years of this partnership, WONC registered as a nonprofit in 2020.
The organization took over the current location in 2018 and has since achieved some incredible milestones: serving over 10,000 meals, providing more than 900 showers, and distributing over 900 bags of food.
January 2025 is also a special month for this organization, as they just celebrated their 15th anniversary!
Helping the Unhoused
In addition to providing food for those in need, the organization offers mobile showers for individuals. This act of allowing people who don't always have access to regular showers is truly a moment of humanization for folks who don't have the luxury of getting clean regularly.
WONC wanted to offer other services to unhoused clients and came across Rescue Mission Alliance in Victor Valley. They were using trailers like the ones in the photo to provide on-site showers, no matter where their clients were. WONC partnered with Rescue Mission Alliance to set up weekly showers for the unhoused community every Monday, from 10 AM - 12 PM.
Individuals are allowed to take 10-minute showers and are provided access to necessities such as undergarments, socks, clean clothing, hygiene items, breakfast, and a hot meal.
This initiative ensures that unhoused clients are able to get clean while abiding by the biblical principles of the story of Jesus's washing of peoples' feet, which is seen as an act of humility, selfless love, and service to others, as well as symbolizing cleansing from sin.
Miraculous Reach
"Sacrifice can be hard sometimes, but the blessings [are] the stories that keep you going," Reece expressed.
Two of the stories from clients that come to everyone's mind from this organization are those of Robert and Carl.
Robert was an unhoused individual who came to their pantry and ended up going through a recovery program offered by the Victor Valley Rescue Mission that helped him out of his current situation. He showed promise and was put in charge of the food pantry at their Victorville location and became the WONC's biggest food donor. Eventually, he was brought on as a paid employee and became the Board President of the High Desert Homeless Services.
Carl, recently given a cancer diagnosis with three months to live, was receiving food from the organization and was having difficulty keeping any food down. They offered him some tea with turmeric, ginger, and galangal (a root vegetable like ginger) to help boost his appetite and make it easier to keep food down. He kept drinking the tea to help his stomach, but the doctor saw that the more he drank it, the more the cancer shrank. He was officially diagnosed cancer-free a few months later.
"We all do it on a volunteer basis, it can be hard because you have your regular job," Reece explains, "but, seeing the fruit of your labor keeps you encouraged."
Though all of the members of WONC are volunteers, they keep up with the need for their beloved community of Victorville, no matter what.
Wrap-Up
As a vital member of FARSB's network of community partner pantries and soup kitchens, this organization is on the front lines, directly feeding the hungry in its community. They pick up food from the warehouse and stock their pantry's shelves with produce and shelf-stable items for unhoused and food-insecure clients in their area of Victorville.
Without partners willing to do the work to reach communities that FARSB wouldn't be able to alone, our partner network continues to show how much they mean to the clients they serve.
FARSB gives a heartfelt thank-you to Pastor Rae and her team who are made up of volunteers that keep the organization running!
If you'd like more information about the Women of Noble Character's pantry or services, please visit: womenofnoblecharacter.org or email them at: info@womenofnoblecharacter.org
If you'd like to know more about FARSB's Community Partner network or would like to become a partner of the Feeding America network, please visit: FeedingIE.org/partnershiprequest
Women of Noble Character
13782 Bear Valley Rd. #469
Victorville, CA 92392
(442)242-1497
Office:
14890 Loves Lane
Victorville, CA 92395
Hours of Operation:
Monday-Thursday
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Kommentit