After three hours of unpolished dicing and slicing, Ori Benoni and Amelia Ribbens tasted the pasta they had painstakingly prepared for the residents of Alexandria House, a transitional homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles.
Benoni took one bite from her plate of fettuccine alfredo and twisted her mouth. The aftertaste had a curiously smoky tinge to it. Ribbens suspected that the pasta was slightly burnt.
Across the room, Jeannette Aldan, a former resident of Alexandria House, was already helping herself to a second plate of the pasta. Aldan told Benoni with a reassuring smile that the smoky flavor added a nice touch.
Benoni, a third-year psychology student and Ribbens, a third-year comparative literature and Spanish and Portuguese student, are student leaders of Improving Maintaining Homeless Opportunities through Mentorship and Education, or IMHOME.
The student group, which was founded in 2006, aims to provide educational and moral support to the 24 homeless children and women living at Alexandria House.
Many women who live at the residence are victims of domestic violence or have struggled with alcohol or drug problems, said Michelle Carranco, the community programs officer of IMHOME.
Families can live at the shelter for a maximum of two years and receive services such as financial counseling and job training to find stable jobs and permanent housing.
The volunteers visit the shelter twice a week and focus on helping the children through mentorship and after-school tutoring programs. They also provide emotional support to the children and women, often organizing activities that aim to build their self-esteem.
Tuesday evenings are often set aside for dinners with the family. The volunteers cook for the families twice or three times a quarter so that the mothers can take a break from cooking and spend more time with their children, said Ribbens, volunteer coordinator of IMHOME.
IMHOME is not only about assisting the mothers and children, but also about developing closer relationships with the women and children through intimate moments like these dinners, Ribbens said.
She said that after the tutoring session on the first day she visited the house, a sassy 5-year-old girl with the personality of 30-year-old had already saved Ribbens a seat next to hers at the dinner table.
Ribbens, who was home-schooled for 10 years during her childhood, said she is familiar with having her classroom and her home be the same place.
Her mother taught Ribbens and her sister until Ribbens went to public school in eighth grade. Novels about famous female figures were sprawled across the breakfast table along with plates of toast and eggs. The family would go on backpacking trips on Santa Catalina Island to study native plant life or travel to Oregon to study about Lewis and Clarke for history.
“Learning is fun, creative, interactive and communal. It was about involving everyone in the experience,” Ribbens said.
Ribbens said she wanted to cultivate the same intimate relationships when she got to college, not simply by tutoring children but also closely interacting with them in activities outside the classroom.
Benoni, the project director and events coordinator of IMHOME, said she can relate to the children living at the residence. Her mother, who raised Benoni and her sister by herself, went through similar struggles as the single mothers at Alexandria House.
When Benoni was young, her mother decided to move her family to Carmel Valley, an affluent neighborhood in San Diego, so that Benoni could go to a better public school. Benoni’s mother worked full time to earn a living, taking care of Benoni and her sister while also taking care of her own mother.
Recently, Benoni’s mother told her she was happy she could buy clothes for Benoni while they were shopping – something her mother wasn’t able to enjoy as a child.
Benoni said she wants to be able to provide that same care and assistance that she received from her mother to the children at IMHOME.
“I’m aware of my privilege and I want to help other people because everyone deserves an education,” Benoni said.
For “Barby,” a mother living at Alexandria House with her 5-year-old son, spending time with Ribbens and Benoni is one of the highlights of her week. Barby chose not to use her real name for security reasons.
Building a close relationship with the volunteers helps her recover from the trauma she experienced when she was homeless, she said.
Before moving to Alexandria House, Barby lived in an emergency shelter with her son for a few weeks. She said the hardest part about being in the shelter was knowing that no matter how much she wanted to get out of her situation, she could not go to job interviews because nobody could look after her son.
“I would have had to lose him to get a job,” she said. “And (this) is (my) first time telling that story without crying.”
Barby said she previously struggled to cope with hurtful stereotypes that often project homeless people as alcoholics and drug addicts, and spending time with Ribbens and Benoni helped her realize that she is like everybody else.
Barby, who studies computer programming at Los Angeles City College, said she and the UCLA students occasionally bond over the fact that they have an upcoming midterm or final.
“There are adults out there who have the money and the time to care, but won’t do anything,” Barby said. “And then (there are) you guys. There are good things in the world.”
Ribbens and Benoni said they have grown alongside the children and mothers. Benoni said her driving has improved after bringing the volunteers back and forth between school and Alexandria House. Ribbens, on the other hand, said that she now knows the ingredients and exact amounts that go into making asparagus pesto pasta.
“You don’t realize how much they mean to you and you mean to them. The relationship that you have with them is just special,” Benoni said. “It’s not a one-way street.”