Photo of Moréa Sabido, founder of Community Loving, which is currently collecting donations through monetary funds, clothing (for kids, babies, and adults), baby essentials, and toiletries. Photo by Louis Kravitz.
By Serena Sanchez, Feature Editor
Growing up around the South Bay Area in a Belizean and Filipino household, Moréa Sabido, a soon-to-be California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) graduate, never gave joining an organization much thought, much less founding one.
At the age of 23, being raised around immigrants and attending different Catholic schools until college, one thing has remained throughout Sabido’s life, “I’ve always valued helping people,” she said.
But the urge to help people through organizations was jump-started at the age of 16, when one of Sabido’s friends founded her own organization. There, she garnered four years’ worth of experience bringing more volunteer opportunities to South Central, L.A. youth. Opportunities that incentivize youth to care and invest in their own communities.
Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization could no longer continue, but Sabido realized that, after being a part of something bigger than herself for so long, she had the drive and determination to continue her work. This work was that of community advocacy, but this time in her own home–the South Bay.
“I felt like I couldn’t just sit back and watch [the pandemic] happen, especially to my black and brown community members,” she said.
What began as a hygiene kit drive with friends, became Community Loving, an organization founded by Sabido with the mission, “to provide unhoused or low-income QTBIPOC families and youth with the necessary resources and safe spaces they need and deserve.” Since the founding of the organization in August 2020, Sabido has been able to provide many essential necessities to marginalized individuals that make up about 61% of the population in California.
And according to Census Reporter, 17% of the South Bay population have a household income of under $50,000, 23% have an income of $50-100,000, and 31% of the population makes $100-200,000.
“Seeing all of the unhoused people, it really let me know that there are people in my community that needed help and needed aid, and just someone to tell them that they are being thought of and that they’re not alone,” Sabido said.
Not only was the South Bay Sabido’s sole focus because of her origins, but because of the misconceptions about the communities it holds. A lot of people dismiss marginalized communities who call it home by assuming that the only inhabitants are rich and white.
“But that also leaves out all of the Black and Brown low-income people that are living paycheck to paycheck, and they’re often left out of that conversation […] I wanted to make sure that my community members were being taken care of and that they have an organization that they can look to for help,” she said.
Involvement in Community Loving takes many forms. They accept donations, mainly as baby clothes and items, as well as kid’s clothes, and, because they receive so much, they have sorting days where volunteers can help sift through the materials. Every three months, they have their event “Drop Baby Drop,” which consists of a free store for low-income families and youth to shop for baby items for every age and size, as well as fun workshops, food, and music.
“We also do a mutual aid giveaway at the park in Alondra where we just give away clothes and whatever we have,” Sabido said. “We’re also going to launch an online free store where you can shop for whatever you need. And there’s free delivery and pickup too.”
The organization has left its mark on CSUDH, a university in the South Bay and the home of Sabido’s undergraduate career, specifically the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), a space she is a member of. The center’s Program Coordinator, Alyeska Gutierrez, thinks highly of Community Loving and its founder as both have created a space for a community to help itself in a time when the government has failed to do so.
“BIPOC low-income families are disproportionately marginalized and often struggle to meet their most basic needs,” Gutierrez said. “Having a student take such amazing leadership and directive to show up and support her community is outstanding. I can honestly say I am beyond impressed at what Moréa has been able to accomplish.”
Amidst baby events and donation sortings, Community Loving has also been involved at CSUDH. At the Love & Liberate: A Body Positivity Fair, an event hosted by the WRC’s G.L.O.W. interns in November 2021, the organization participated by bringing free clothing and coffee.
“Many students, due to external factors such as financial hardships, may need basic necessities such as clothes. Having Community Loving give out clothes to students who need them was a blessing,” Yoselin Juarez, a G.L.O.W. intern, said. “Not to mention that they gave the clothes in a cute way, putting them on clothing racks and giving shopping bags for students to feel a sense of belonging, rather than embarrassment.”
Through Community Loving, Sabido and her friend who runs it, are not only simply involved in the marginalized communities within the South Bay, but they are also creating bonds and connections with those who attend their events.
“There are some people that we see come to every event and we know them by name now […] It’s only been a year and six months, and we already have regulars that we know and know their situation,” Sabido smiled. “It’s really a place of love and community.”
Having regulars and building solid relationships are only the beginning of the roots Sabido has planted with the creation of Community Loving. Instead of an individualistic mindset, the heart of this organization is collective care and mutual aid. While giving your old items away is immensely helpful, going out and helping friends, neighbors, or those unhoused is what they are about.
“I just want to be able to transform the South Bay into a community that loves each other,” Sabido said. “I feel like it’s so easy for people to just look away. And they don’t feel like they have any responsibility to help anyone, when we all are humans, and we all exist in the same place.”
Focusing on those who need more help, such as marginalized communities, because, more often than not, struggling with how to put food on the table or clothe their children is consistent whilst living paycheck to paycheck. This is exactly the hardship Sabido hopes Community Loving will eradicate, if not completely, than most.
“[Community Loving] wants to take care of [providing necessities] so that families can focus on healing and making memories with their families instead of having to worry about basic survival things,” she said. “I don’t want to ever have to feel like I have to just figure shit out on my own when there are other people that can help, and there are other people that want to help each other.”
If you’re interested in donating or would like to learn more about the organization, you can visit Community Loving on their website.
