Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M)’s mission is to improve the health of patients with blood cancers or blood-related disease by diversifying the national Be The Match Registry with marrow donors from various ethnic communities, therefore increasing the likelihood of patients finding a live-saving marrow match. 

In January 2021, A3M welcomed 8 new interns from UCI, UCSD, UC Davis, and CSULA. Working remotely, they run targeted Instagram pages within specific ethnic communities to recruit new donors. So far, they’ve registered 29 new donors!

With the help of 16 volunteers, Chris Chen (A3M Outreach Lead) hosted 6 drives and registered over 500 new donors in search of a match for his patient Paul. Because Paul is of Japanese and Jewish heritage, finding a stem cell match was not easy. Although a match from the public registry wasn’t found in time, his doctors proceeded with transplanting his sister’s cells who were a 50% match. Paul recently underwent the transplant surgery on Friday, March 12. We wish Paul well on his road to recovery!

In response to the pandemic, the LT Eats meal delivery program supports local restaurants and keeps local low-income seniors safe at home. Restaurants are paid market value for their meals and seniors receive them at a subsidized rate. Volunteers and staff provide contact-free deliveries every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon.

LT Eats resumed on January 20, 2021, with Nicole Oshima as the new LT Eats coordinator. Volunteers have also delivered some special treats such as an Oshogatsu meal to celebrate the new year, Valentine’s Day plush bears (thanks to an amazing donor), and a Hinamatsuri meal with sakura mochi from Fugetsudo.

Since April 2020, over 15,000 meals (in 12 months) have been delivered to senior residents in 6 buildings across Little Tokyo. Volunteers, staff, and translators have put in over 250 hours of service from January 2021 to March 2021.

LTSC Small Business Counselors have been matching talented volunteers to local small businesses to bolster their support during the pandemic.

Currently 7 Little Tokyo small businesses are being supported by 20-25 volunteers. These volunteers provide urgent technical assistance to keep businesses visible online. Volunteers have helped owners learn how to utilize Instagram stories for promotion and engagement, build and launch websites, and even put together an IG TV series!

LTSC’s South Bay Office has been coordinating lunch, dinner and Food Bank programs for our clients in need throughout the pandemic. 

In March, we partnered with Garden Valley JCI to assemble bags of various Japanese food items for our senior clients. These items (such as green tea and Sakura mochi) accompanied staple items provided by the LA Food Bank. We hope to continue these Japanese food bags each month with new items!

This quarter, staff and volunteers delivered 391 dinners, 193 Food Bank boxes, 65 bags of Japanese food and coordinated 743 lunch deliveries.

LTSC’s Resident Services Department has assisted our low-income residents with food security throughout the pandemic.

Resident Services’ pantry/produce program hit the one year mark in March 2021! The Pantry/Produce Program has delivered 456 produce bags and 58 pantry bags since January 2021.

Resident Services partnered with Community Feeding Community (CFC) to provide 80 free meals to seniors and families in Little Tokyo. These bi-weekly meals help supplement the alternating produce delivery schedule. The meals are purchased at full price in support of our local LT small businesses. There have been 320 CFC Meals distributed since February 2021.

A huge thank you to our volunteers for safely delivering food items to our residents. This program would not be possible without you!

Interested in upcoming volunteer opportunities? Check out our profile on Volunteer Match! Opportunities range from one-time event help to providing ongoing support for various programs.