Center seeks support for monthly food packages helping Sacramento’s Iu Mien community

For years, the Iu Mien Community Services Center on Stockton Boulevard was the place to go for about 60 to 75 seniors of Iu Mien descent, all of whom came to the United States as Vietnam War-era refugees in the 1970s.

Every week they would gather in the small, modest building behind a retail complex in south Sacramento. They socialized, celebrated ancient customs, told stories, and took in all the senior-level healthy living advice provided by a rotating lineup of health educators. That pastime, a central part of their lives, is now on indefinite hold.

COVID-19 put an abrupt and worrisome end to that, says Asia Saechao, senior program coordinator. Now her biggest worry centers on whether these low-income seniors – especially the disabled and the poorest of the poor – are getting enough to eat. Most can’t take the bus to the grocery store now, and those who can don’t believe it is safe to be out.

Rather than stand by, the Iu Mien Center started up a monthly grocery bag distribution. The problem is their own modest budget isn’t enough to supply a sustainable supply of food.

They do what they can once a month, says Saechao, providing one bag of culturally relevant food and a few health pamphlets for every single senior who needs one.

Still, it is a blessing to receive the groceries, says Nyinh Saechao, 71, a recipient of the food distribution. The woman has counted her blessings throughout her life. Her father was a general in the South Vietnamese army helping American soldiers fighting against the communists, and when the war was over, her family suddenly had to flee their village on foot with nothing more than what they could carry.

They ate whatever they could find in the forest and whatever the American troops dropped down from a helicopter as they walked toward Thailand. They found safety at one camp or another, having to leave again as the communist regime ultimately found and raided each one of them.

Getting to Thailand and then to the United States took years, and along the way she married and had four children. Two more were born here in the U.S.

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, she walked up to the curbside event and waited her turn to receive a bag. Dressed stylishly in her Iu Mien embroidered dress and turban, she smiled as she spoke about her appreciation for the United States and the center and its donors’ generosity.

Through an interpreter, she said she was most grateful for the ability to watch her six children grow up in this country.

“I am most thankful for the resources America has been able to provide for me and my family,” she added.

Living alone in an apartment now, she said the food she collected that day should help relieve the pressure she feels to have enough food to last until the end of the month.

The funds used for the Thanksgiving grocery giveaway came from two months’ money Iu Mien had set aside for refreshments and snacks at their weekly get-together. The center also had to hold a fundraiser for the Thanksgiving distribution.

“We wanted to make sure each person had a little something extra for the Thanksgiving holidays,” Saechao said.

Altogether, the staff was able to cobble together 75 food kits, each with a two-ounce bag of bean thread glass noodles, a few canned goods courtesy of the Sacramento Food Bank and a choice of one freshly killed chicken (as is the Iu Mien custom) or a small turkey, donated from the Stockton Boulevard Partnership.

Susan Saechao, the center’s executive director, said she wants to do more in the months ahead but she says, “we will struggle to meet that need over the course of the winter months.”

The Center is hoping Book of Dreams readers can help raise $5,000 to help provide one grocery bag per month for every senior in need throughout the winter.

“With that kind of support, they can remove the stressors of finding future months’ groceries and enjoy their holidays with their families,” Susan Saechao said.

Meuy Liam Saelee, 60, of south Sacramento, also stopped by to see what kind of food was available during last week’s distribution. Saelee, who left her native land at age 24, arrived in the United States in 1985 and is a veteran grocery store shopper.

“I don’t like to go to the store now because it is scary ... it gives me anxiety because of COVID, and I miss (going to the center and) not being able to socialize with my friends,” she said.

But at this special American holiday season, she said she also was grateful for all that she is being provided, especially food and good friends.

This story was originally published November 25, 2021 at 12:00 AM.