April Recap at Chatham Village Apartments in Orange County

ORANGE, CA - During the month of April, Martha Veneers, PSCDC Director of Services for Orange County, continued to provide the community of Chatham Village Apartments with a range of resident-focused services. Although food security assistance continues to be the most heavily requested service from residents, Martha provides other services that focus on addressing other essential needs and requests such as health and wellness clubs, educational classes, and community building events.

Chatham Village's walking club focuses to get residents of all ages to get out of the house and build a light exercise routine. The club meets three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays with participants following along with a workout video played in the community room. The club's current goal is to be able to walk four miles every meeting. According to Martha, the club started by walking only one mile, and eventually built up to two miles after a few weeks. After a few more weeks, Martha aims to build up to three miles, and eventually, four.

As part of her PSCDC hosted services, Martha also established an arts and crafts class for residents to learn how to make easy do-it-yourself craft projects and flex their creativity. Currently, participants are learning how to make earrings, bracelets, and necklaces with beads with one resident particularly excited to learn more so that she can sell her handmade crafts. The class meets every two weeks, and has been a popular way for families to spend time with one another and for kids to hang out after school.

To celebrate April with the whole Chatham Village community, Martha worked with Chatham Village management to organize an Easter egg hunt celebration on Saturday, April 8. Families, especially the children, enjoyed the egg hunt along with crafts, games, and a raffle for ten Easter-themed baskets. Afterwards, all participating residents were treated to cupcakes, ice cream, and bags of candy. Chatham Village management provided the icream and donated some of the gifts used in the raffle.

Finally, the food distributions in April took place on Tuesdays and Fridays. Alongside local food bank partner, Orange County Food Bank, and the City of Tustin's Parks & Recreation, Martha was able to serve approximately 40 to 60 households per distribution. Although supplies for the food boxes change depending on what is readily available, residents are typically supplied with meat, chicken, eggs, dairy, canned food, vegetables, and fruit. Martha has prioritized getting the community access to extra food resources, as residents particularly look forward to the food distributions to help stock food for their households.

Some of the PSCDC hosted services at Chatham Village by Martha are made possible and successful due to the collaboration with the community's management and local partners like Orange County Food Bank and City of Tustin's Parks & Recreation. PSCDC gives a massive thank you to all of our local Orange County partners.