Iretha Warmsley, a SCOPE volunteer, packages food bags for immigrants afraid to leave their homes.
For years, Iretha Warmsley has volunteered with Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE), packaging bags filled with bread, corn, chili, spaghetti sauce and other essentials for neighbors in need.
Since the ICE raids swept through Los Angeles County in June, much of that food has gone to immigrants who are too afraid to shop for groceries, pick up prescriptions, or even go to work.
As she assembled another set of packages, Warmsley reflected on how the raids, for her, are personal. “ I’m old school — I don’t like people being treated with racism, and that’s exactly what we’re dealing with. As a Black woman, I know firsthand what discrimination is. Now, they’re targeting the Latino community and using them as scapegoats. What they’re doing is tearing families apart.”
SCOPE is among several nonprofit partners the California Community Foundation supports through its new L.A. Neighbors Support Fund. The fund is delivering relief amid a humanitarian crisis caused by the immigration raids in Los Angeles County. Grants from the fund enable organizations to quickly scale up their support for communities that need it the most.
“This is not about the politics of the recent events, but their effect on people who have lost a loved one, their source of income, and are terrified,” said CCF President and CEO Miguel A. Santana.
Iretha Warmsley, a SCOPE volunteer, packages food bags for immigrants afraid to leave their homes.
Santana said the fund is meant to stabilize communities and aid families in the same way previous CCF funds have helped during the pandemic, wildfires and other crises and disasters. “When stores, schools and streets empty out, vibrant neighborhoods become ghost towns. Fear sets off a cycle of despair. This is about Angelenos helping Angelenos,” he added.
That was clearly on display recently when SCOPE volunteers and staff members gathered to deliver food to 100 families – up from 45 before the ICE raids.
The volunteers meet at SCOPE’s South Los Angeles office to fill bags with grocery staples and set aside boxes of diapers for families with infants. They are given a paper list of households for their deliveries – which they destroy when they are finished to protect the confidentiality of the people.
Many of those who need food are too afraid to answer the door so the bags are left outside, said Ernie Serrano, a SCOPE staff member. “I’ve had conversations with people who say they’ve been here 20 years, and they’re afraid. Their kids were born here. It’s crazy to think we’re in 2025 and this is happening.”
-Gilien Silsby