On a mild fall morning — perfect weather for a bike ride or brunch with friends — around 20 volunteers opted instead to meet in El Cajon to serve others through a nonprofit called the BLISS Care Foundation. They came from as far as Fallbrook.
Together, they assembled around 70 Thanksgiving dinners and care packages at the nonprofit’s office in El Cajon and then passed them out to people living in a nearby senior apartment complex.
“I just love to see their faces when they smile when you bring them their food. So for me, it’s in my heart. I just love doing it,” said Josie Keeler as she placed slices of juicy, herbed turkey into a to-go container.
She used to have a small business, a postal shop. But she is now studying to be a social worker at Palomar College.
“The need right now, after Covid, with the elderly, there’s just not enough workers,” she said. “So volunteers are so important.”
That very gap is what drove Dyna and Kevin Jones, BLISS Care Foundation’s co-founders, to decide to provide free caregiving services to low-income seniors. BLISS stands for Blessed Low-Income Senior Support. The couple started the nonprofit in 2019 after seeing how challenging it is for elderly San Diegans with health concerns to access quality in-home care if they have limited funds.
Dyna Jones said she saw the need for people in a community to help one another through her work — and personal life. She grew up poor. She walked the four miles to her school barefoot, and if her father didn’t fish or farm, her family of seven only ate rice and salt that day. That was in the Philippines.
Today her life is very different. She found her calling as a caregiver after working as an aide in an assisted living setting, then as a private caregiver. She also cleaned mobile home parks. Later, she had various other roles in the caregiving ecosystem — from staffing to teaching to being a housing provider. It all left her thinking that society needs to take better care of the elderly — and make it a shared priority.
San Diego, CA, November 19, 2023: Kevin Jones, right, founder of the BLISS Care Foundation, speaks with volunteers as they get ready to distribute care packages and fresh made meals to seniors in El Cajon on Sunday, November 19, 2023. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“Who’s going to take care of us? Who’s going to take care of them? It (caregiving as a value) needs to get passed down from generation to generation, because we really don’t want to rely on robots to take care of us,” Jones said.
Sunday’s food and care package distribution, and a similar one Saturday, were focused on Thanksgiving. (Since Wednesday, Jones has cooked — in her home kitchen — around 380 Thanksgiving dinners.) It was supported by private donations, volunteers, and organizations including Sycuan Casino Resort, Mission Hospice, Good Samaritan Home Health and many others.
The volunteers went to Solterra Apartments, a 49-unit complex in downtown El Cajon.
Barbara Tibbetts received a dinner and care package, with paper towels and supplies, with a smile. The retiree — who worked in a grocery store and once had an antique store — said she has family in town and support from her children, but others in the building do not.
“I appreciate what they do,” Tibbetts said. “I know there’s a lot of people here that don’t have anybody. I know a lady on the second floor that has nobody to help her. Of course if you talk to her, she tells you she doesn’t need any help. But she does. I think it’s wonderful what they do.”
Sam Thomas, 14, of Bay Park, delivered the package to Tibbetts, along with his parents and older brother.
“It feels good to help them. And even though it was my parents’ idea, it still feels good to help people out and just make their day,” Thomas said. “It makes me feel like we got lucky — and like some people aren’t as lucky, and to help them.”
