South County Outreach has a new look — and with free designer clothes, so do their clients
IRVINE — The timing was coincidental but fit perfectly.
Just as South County Outreach finished months of repairs to fix extensive water damage to its offices and food pantry, volunteer clothing stylists set up a free “shopping” boutique and assisted female clients of the nonprofit in choosing outfits from donated designer clothes.
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For Araceli Magallanes of Lake Forest, the chance to pick out some new clothes for herself and her mother arrived like an early present on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
“This works for everything — interviews, work, holidays,” Magallanes, 28, said to clothing stylist and South County Outreach board member Christiana Parsons as she held up a pair of dark blue, loose-fitting “Midnight in Paris” pants. They’re from a collection of clothes donated by the Cabi (Carol Anderson by invitation) direct-sales fashion brand.
Magallanes is an after-school fitness instructor who is typically clad in the kind of sportswear she wore to the South County Outreach headquarters on Whatney Drive, which she visits at least every other month to supplement food for her four-member household.
“I’m just excited to take advantage of this,” said Magallanes, who signed up for the free designer clothes event along with other female clients served by South County Outreach. “This was nice.”
By the end of three hours, 50 women of all ages stopped by the refurbished computer room at South County Outreach, where rolling racks of clothes — pants, jackets and blazers, sweaters and blouses — were set up for the women to peruse and pick out up to five pieces.
Styles included black velvet brocade jackets, a delicate lacy plum blazer, heavy and light sweaters, skinny jeans and tailored blouses.
About 10 full-length mirrors gave the women a chance to see how they looked in outfits that the stylists — all Cabi clothing consultants sporting Santa Claus hats — helped them choose from among pieces with price tags upwards of $100.
Many, like Magallanes, picked out something for themselves and for a daughter or mother or aunt. Each was also presented a chic black wrap when they left.
Music by contemporary women artists played from a Bluetooth speaker and a decorated Christmas tree took up a corner in a room that gleamed with freshly painted walls and new vinyl plank flooring.
Recovery
The mood in the impromptu boutique matched that throughout South County Outreach, now recovered from an overnight water leak in August that damaged floors, walls, cabinets and shelves.
The food pantry serves about 2,000 households a month. Clients used to filling their own grocery bags instead were handed packaged food bags because of the conditions in the warehouse-like pantry.
The pantry re-opened for business as usual early last week. The nonprofit is still working to get food supplies back to normal volume.
South County Outreach suffered $86,000 in damage — $77,000 worth of repairs covered by the nonprofit through insurance and donations, with the rest paid by their landlord.
President and CEO Lara Fisher was glad the work was finished in time for the winter holidays, the busiest season: “We’re excited that it’s going to be Christmas and we’re up and running.”
But nobody seemed more excited than one woman who confided to volunteers that this had been a rough year. She spent about an hour trying on different pieces of clothing and deciding which to take home.
The woman did not want to give her name because her family doesn’t know she needs assistance. But, she said, “It’s been so long since I’ve shopped.”