good afternoon. i'm kristen sze. today is giving tuesday and we want toe really focus on highlighting organizations in our community here at abc with our parent company disney, we want to help you spread the love this holiday season. disney is partnering with three organizations to help families in need feeding america, toys for to the, and one simple wish, which grants wishes for kids in fothser care. feeding america is the largest hunger relief organization with a network of 200 food banks and 60 thood food pan tryst and programs. we're proud to donate $15,000 to the empire food bank this year. >> a $15,000 grant to provide

fresh produce, which is a wonderful contribution. fresh produce is something that low income people and people in need often don't buy because it's expensive and they have to decide how to spend their funds. however, it is some of the most nutritious food we provide. so the $15,000 allowed us to contribute about $60,000 worth of produce by the way in which we're able to make a dollar stretch. >> and you can also help toys for to the. now through december 134th visit shop disney.com/toys for to the and disney will donate $1 for each toy. find out more about how to help any organizations we support. go to abc7news.com/take action. >> another great local organization. we want to talk about.

the organization is known as alas. helping latinos to dreams. joining us to talk more about this, the executive director belinda hernandez and an eighth grade volunteer, el kin lopez. good afternoon to both of you. >> good afternoon. >> i like your t-shirts. don't think i don't notice that. your organization is based on the coastal city of half moon bay. could you tell us what you do in that community? >> yeah. allas is excited to be on the coast where we are invested in providing cultural arts, education, social services and mental health to primarily our latino families, children, and farm workers in our community and lately with covid we have been providing covid relief, food pantry, mental health out in the farms and including ppe

for our central workers and families as well. >> and the folks with who are there to do so much for the farming, like we go to the coast, right. we see all the great work that they do. it's great that you're there to support the folks who are actually doing that work. elkin, i want to bring you in. how did the organization help you when you first got here from honduras? >> well, it support us a lot. they give us a lot of support. they give us a lot of -- they give you a lot of opportunities, they give you confidence, but because i feel like it was a new family for me. how? well, thanks to the programs they offer, i was getting used to it through the style of living in the u.s., so thanks to

alas and thanks to a lot of people, i'm getting more confident and more used to this style of life. >> not many eighth graders can talk on camera like this, so i can see that confidence coming through right now. tell us what you do to help as part of alas now when you're not busy doing homework or in school? >> one of the way i help is when every saturday night -- morning, i mean, i help distribute food to the community because many people, not only in in community but in the world have and still have problem, difficulties to buy services, including food. so alas in this case helps the community by giving food. and i feel happy not only to participate but to know that i'm helping others. in another way that i help alas is telling my story, that story about immigration to honduras to

the u.s., and that really inspiefr a lot of people, many people, and makes them want to participate and help and donate to the organization of alas. let's not forget. we're talking about the folks who are the backbone of so much of the food growing and farming that comes out of the coastal region here. the strawberries, all sorts of goods. push kins and belinda, i want to ask you, abc 7 was at a ribbon cutting for a home donated. what does this is allow you to accomplish? >> we're really excited to have a new home that we can open doors for more programming for youth like elkin, for our mothers, farmers, farm workers, the community in general to come as a collective and create a space for services, for healing, for sharing, for celebration, and really during covid, too, we found that there was such a bigger need for other boisk need

services like elkin spoke about food and so we really needed to find a place that allowed for this and we had just a miracle opportunity, a donor that was able to help us get this space to grow, care for the community, basically. >> and belinda, recently you actually got some personal products, not just some. a whole lot, to distribute through the center. tell us about that. >> yeah. we're really excited. hispanic starr and abc 7 together all of us have been working to get a whole half a truckload of resources from pg&e products, soap, dish washing soap, body soap, toilet tissue, paper towels, all kinds of toiletries that we can give out to the community and we're going to be doing that this friday and we're excited to unpack and share this abundance of

resources that has come through pg&e through hispanic star. >> are a lot of your clients left out of the assistance pool? >> yes. well, when we first saw covid hit, there was so much concern and fear and of course the unknown. a lot of times folks are not able to access due to paperwork that's needed or status or information. sometimes even work, you know. an inability to get to these resources, so alas together with all of youed and a whole community of people that said we care came together and have been giving us support, including folks like philanthropic foundation, silicon valley foundation, latino community foundation coming together to say hey, we're here for the kmungt, and it's really made a difference. >> incredible. hey, elkin, i know that something else that you, your

brother, your parents did for the community is that you recently took to making masks and distributing them. talk to us about that. >> well, it is an incredible experience to know that my family and i have the opportunity to serve to the community. to know that we gave -- we are getting protection to other people who are saving lives, so it makes my family and i really proud, really proud. >> no doubt. i bet they really are. i want to pointous, ba linda you mentioned products that you're able to distribute to folks working with abc 7. it's proctor & gamble, right? >> yeah. >> thanks for clarifying that. how can our virus report alas right now? >> first of all, thank you for this giving tuesday to wherever you're giving, it's important to give back to our communities, and we at alas is excited for

your partnership, your support. every dollar goes through the front lines to keep our food pantry open, to keep growing ppe and our farm workers. you can go online to our website at www.alas that's alas hmb.org and you can donate there and find out more information about our program. >> yeah. and folks if you don't remember that, go to our website, abc7news.com, we'll have the information up on our website as well so you can find alas. elkin i have to point out, embarrass you a little bit more here that you're part of the alas music program and you've learned to play the violin. it would be great in the 30 seconds we have left if you could play us to break. >> sure. >> and while he's getting ready, this morning elkin did a special serenade to one of our beautiful

community members which we're so excited about. >> oh. elkin, take it away. we'll go as long as we have time and we'll go to break from there. thank you. ♪ >> fantastic. thank you. thank you so much for doing your great work at alas on the coast in half moon way. i hope a lot of folks will be supporting you. >> thank you abc 7 and to all of you. thank you elkin. >> thank you. we'll take a short break but we have a lot left on our day of giving. coming how about poor fred wilson? what a shame.

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welcome back to our day of giving special. joining us right now, david bvleet and high quality health and social services to underserved communities. thank you for joining us today. >> thanks for having us. >> thank you, thank you vmd. >> absolutely. i'm going to start with you. because you started your public health career with life long medical care. what's the group's mission and how do you accomplish that? >> so our mission is to make sure that everyone who needs access to care receives access

to care. we see individuals regardless of their ability to pay and regardless of their immigration status. so we provide comprehensive medical care services throughout almeida county, contra costa county and marin and we help individuals get on any program they may qualify for to receive the services that they need. >> does it include dental, mental health, medical, all times? >> yes. a comprehensive array of health care services that includes what you just mentioned, all those services and we've been providing those services now, it will be 45 years next year that we were founded in 1976 by the gray panthers, so we've been doing its ever since. >> david, giviwhat do you see ae future vision for life long?

>> we have a long track record in the community and have been providing us to care for a long time. there's always more need and demand. we'll talk a little in the minute about the covid crisis, but i see our mission to continue to be what i call an ak rim, are, are we there for our patients, are we accessible, responsive and engaged. when you engage the community and they feel as if they're being cared for, those that do not have access to care, it impacts their offensively wellness. we want to continue to impact the wellness, epidemiologically speaking, psycho socially, and to play an important role in making sure people's health status improve. we have work we're doing in the homeless area that are new services. we plan to continue to expand those. we have a long track record of serving elderly patients.

our over 60 clinic was a one of the first. >> this question's for either one of you. what do you think the challenge is made more urgent and bigger by the pandemic? >> i'll start and lucinda, who's a master -- a public health byrne training. the fact is that this has two impacts on an organization like ourselves. first, the people that we serve. there are front line workers that are in the kitchen that are taking care of children who are not able to work because of this crisis and who have loved ones at home they have to care for. so obviously impacts the patients that we serve in the broader community that we serve. we hire the community to serve the community. in addition to the providers and the physicians, all the folks in our organization are members of our community and they have similar challenges with the pandemic and face those very

same obstacles. and so really making sure that we're able to accommodate and as a community based organization continue with our mission and support our staff. >> listen, i'd like to ask you to share success story. i know you have many. but give us one of them that really is dear to your heart. >> you know, i think i'm given the work that we've been trying to do with our unhoused community, our homes individuals, we have a street medicine team that goes out to encampments to make sure we're providing care to the homeless communities. we just had a gentleman who hasn't sought care in a while, but two of our team members were able to convince him to go into a health center to get the care that he needed, and they did so by saying that he could bring his dog with him. because the dog was his partner and his family member.

so that was an opportunity to connect with the patient and have that patient come in for care. the care that he needed, just by showing empathy. so he was very appreciative to our staff and the community came others that he knows, because that was showing the compassion that our team does. >> david, do you have another story of the kind of impact that life long has made on a patient? >> i do. you know, people's -- we take our smile for granted and our new tent dental director who just joined us encountered a patient who was a veteran who had been really just kind of stumbling around in the system in an effort to get his dentures fixed. as you know, it's hard to -- without glasses to read the classified, without proper oral care, it's a challenge to get what's -- gets employment, so

she helped the patient through the system and will be helping him get that dental plate that he needs, that denture that he needs. it's a small thing but it really brings an amazing elevation to a person's life. >> absolutely. so tell us both of you how can we help you succeed. what are you asking the community to do to help you? >> well, it's important that we continue to provide the necessary medical services that we need during this pandemic and we're providing covid-19 testing. what we find with the communities we're working on, particularly lower income communities, communities of color who are really impacted the worse by this pandemic, there are other social issues that we need to help them address. so in order to do the operations and carry out the services that we do is important to be funded to do that. and also help our parents with

other issues that include food insecurity. ensuring that people have masks and hand sanitizers to actually really be safe, so that type of funding would be very helpful to life long. >> ok. what about in terms of financially fund raising. i know it hasn't been easy, david. can you tell us on this day of giving what people can do to help if they want to contribute? >> we certainly would appreciate and welcome your help. please feel free to visit our website, lifelong medicalcare.org and there's a donate button there and those funds will go to direct patient care. >> all right, thank you both so very much for explaining the good work that you do, and i do hope that a lot of folks will step up to help so you can continue with your mission. >> thanks so much. >> appreciate it. >> thank you. take care. all right, folks. don't go away.

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>> we are back. our next organization is a local nonprofit working to end hunger and connecting with a national poultry company so we wanted to bring them both on. the founder of san francisco mission food hub roberto hernandez on the right and the vice president of communications for foster farms, ira brill in the middle there how are you both do gentlemen? >> good, thank you. >> [ speaking foreign language ] >> [ speaking foreign language ] indeed. >> roberto oil start with you. because you pivoted from organizing the national carnival event to something different, to organizing the san francisco mission food hub. tell us about this pantry and why it became so important with covid-19? >> so you know, the annual

carnival parade that we produce, our organization, you know, by in march we started getting calls from people who lost their jobs and in tears. people were telling me their stories. one of the things i asked, like ok, what's number one need that you have right now. and every single one of them said food. so i started doing food out of my, you know, going buying groceries for people and asking other people to buy groceries for families and that was sustainable. so i opened up my garage and we started buying 50 pound bags of rice and beans and backing dressries, but that wasn't sustainable. so i decided to start the food hub. the warehouse that was empty and i got the space for free. >> how much food have you distributed so far and to how many people? >> so we started here with 30

families out of my house and out of my garage we were doing 180. and by may when we opened up on 701 alabama street we were doing 500 people, which we actually launched on cinco de mayo. by the end of may, the lines grew to 3,000 and currently we're providing groceries to over 7,000 families per week. >> that is just incredible. ira, i want to bring you in. you made a donation, foster farms did, to the san francisco mission food hub. you chose several west coast fahd banks and relief organizations this year. why is making these contributions so important to foster farms? >> you know, we've been in the poultry business since 1939, and there are a lot of generations that -- of californians that have supported us, and i think we realized that all of us can sometimes find ourselves in times of need and we see it as a

responsibility to try and give back. we've donated almost two million pounds of products as a part of covid-19 relief. we annually do turkey donations and we're very pleased to be able to donate to roberto's mission food hub. i think it's fantastic that there is a grass roots organization that's working to relieve hunger in the city. >> absolutely. so glad foster farms was able to step in and help. you upped your turkey donations this year. roberto, finally, with 30 seconds we have left, how can people watching this help you do your work, the san francisco mission food hub? >> today we actually -- on giving tuesday we launched our holiday toy food and clothing drive. so people can donate toys or they can donate money or they can donate clothes so that every

child in every family has a beautiful christmas holiday. >> well, thank you so very much. san francisco mission food hub doing great work and foster farms of course, lending a helping

turkeys. take care, gentlemen. >> thank you. >> and just a reminder. abc 7 and our parent company disney are teaming up to help our communities during the holidays. if you need help or can offer help we have information at abc7news.com/takeaction. you can find links on all the guests you just saw and more on abc7news.com. thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show today "getting answers" special

edition. if you can donate please do it. we'll tonight, breaking news as we come on the air involving the vaccines. a cdc panel voting late today on who will get a vaccine first and how soon, as the head of the fda is summoned to the white house today and is asked why the pfizer vaccine hasn't been approved yet for emergency use. his answer, as hospitals now buy freezers to store the vaccine at my nut 94 degrees. and there is new guidance from the cdc coming in tonight if you've been exposed to the virus. this evening, the increasing numbers across the country. nearly 100,000 americans now in the hospital fighting covid. in new york city tonight, officials urging older adults and people at high risk to limit time outside their homes. two-thirds of the city's icu beds are now full. the plea for retired nurses and doctors to be ready. and the retired doctor coming back ont t