I find myself humbled every week that I get to meet and interview my neighbors, but this week I came home and said “I am simply not worthy.” I am honored for you to meet Arlene Mercer. I can tell you already that my time with her and notes on her accomplishments far outweigh what I can squeeze into these pages, but please, read on!
Arlene’s early life was fairly typical of the time. She was born and raised as the middle child of three in the west Pennsylvania town of Windber, east of Pittsburgh in steel mill country. She married her high school sweetheart, Terry, and helped to support him while he worked on his degrees in Electrical Engineering and they started their family with two children.
Terry’s career had the family on the move many times during the early years of their marriage, mostly on the eastern seaboard. She had a love and talent in art from a young age, and as the family moved about she found herself with work at home opportunities utilizing her art skills that included the working for art legend Helen Humes producing decorative folk art items.
Her true love, however, was in medicine and she would have loved to have been a doctor one day, but it was not to be. However, her nurturing personality and caring spirit would guide her to the amazing things she has done. As an example, during their less than two year stay in Bradford, PA, she started a non-profit called “Adopt a Grandparent” that matched young people with the local elderly to assist them with chores, errands, appointments and other, but also developed mentor relationships for the youth at the same time.
In 1984, Terry’s job moved him west, and although the company he worked with recommended Palos Verdes, the Mercer’s were looking for something that felt a bit more like Pennsylvania home and found it in College Park East. Arlene tells me that she knew their decision to move here was the right one when they met a neighbor who lived kitty-corner from them who was from their hometown, although the rival school. It was serendipity and after having moved many times in the first years of their life together, they have remained here for 32 years.
Once in California, everything went into high gear for Arlene. As she tells the story she was working in Anaheim, driving across Katella every day and saw so many people in need daily along the route. At the same time, she became very aware of the massive waste every day in the restaurant and food oriented businesses such as grocers and others and wondered how she could bridge that gap. Circumstances found her leaving her job and ultimately, Food Finders was born out of the Mercer home in 1989. For a long time, Arlene developed ways to get food and other life necessities from local businesses to distribute to local agencies in need. Her focus was primarily on Long Beach as it was closer to home.
There could be as many as 5,000 homeless in Long Beach, 10 percent of whom are children. This number does not include the over 50,000 other residents in the city who are living at or below the poverty line level. The need is very near to us and very dire. Arlene has been working tirelessly since 1989 to fill that gap against things such as public prejudice and old regulations that didn’t allow them to simply transport food across one county line to another!
She moved the organization to Long Beach in 2001, and Food Finders grew and grew and today is a multi-faceted non-profit organization, coordinating volunteers and food deliveries of over 100,000 pounds per month to over 73 local organizations. Since 1989, Food Finders has delivered over 4 million pounds of food to those in need.
She left her beloved Food Finders in 2011, thinking perhaps it was time to slow down and play her beautiful piano that she has been neglecting for years. This was not to be. Shortly after, she received the call of need yet again and has now been serving in a leadership role with Long Beach based Urban Community Outreach. This organization draws on many other large organizations in the area to serve the homeless and in need population in a variety of ways, not only serving meals, but helping with health, job skills, finding placement, jobs, mental health rehabilitation and many other holistic ways that need to be addressed to bring individuals and families back into mainstream society. Through her efforts, she is helping to draw together so many fragmented groups who are all seeking to try and help this segment of our population, creating better focus and ability to reach more individuals effectively.
She tells me although her position is “part time,” she spends full time “plus” to help build and guide this organizational vision to helping so many in the community. She figures the piano will be there when she is really ready. Her son and his family are in Boulder, Co. and she is fortunate enough to have her daughter and family close by in Huntington Beach. Her vision and example of caring for others has already trickled down to her grandchildren who are actively involved in their communities as well.
Her philosophy and outlook are pure and simple. In short she sees that “sometimes it is just the littlest thing that can change an entire life. If we all opened our eyes and looked every day, what an amazing unity we would have in our communities.” She is a shining daily example of who we all should aspire to be. Thank you Arlene for all your years of love and giving to our community. I know, as I started this, I will simply never be worthy.
If you would like to know more about how you can help, please go to urbancommunityoutreach.org.
