My Name is Monica Lakind, I am a single mother of two autistic children.
During Covid I was a domestic violence survivors which left us homeless, jobless, financially unstable and sleeping on the
streets of Broward County.
That’s where I met this amazing person, so full of energy spreading hope and grace while feeding the homeless on the street of our community. This exceptional woman is Gloria Vargas.
Gloria is a full-time waitress who works in Delray Beach. During her time away from work she uses her every spare moment she has helping the homeless women and children on the streets of Fort Lauderdale.
Gloria Vargas founded a Charity called Care in Action, USA in 2012. Ms. Vargas, along with her husband Antonio Vargas and her son, Cedric O. Lewis, have been cooking meals for the homeless since 2012 on Sundays to provide hot meals for the homeless in this community. They feed and provide services for the homeless, help families find services for housing, give support for their needs and spiritual support as well as bible studies, conducted by her husband Antonio Vargas.
The bible studies take place on Mondays at 12:30 pm. Shortly afterwards lunch is served at 1:45 pm and a second distribution of meals at 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm in Straughan Park downtown Fort Lauderdale. They have been fighting for the plight of the homeless for the past eight years. There are too many lives lost and destroyed while waiting for help and most people believe the myth that mental health creates homelessness.
The lack of affordable housing adds stress to the homeless mental health crisis. Gloria Vargas and her family have cooked and served over 230,000 meals, but this mission does not come easy. Gloria pleads to the politicians to address affordable housing. Section 8 vouchers do not solve the problem and it has not just become a poor man’s problem due to our current inflation crisis.
My family and I were homeless for over a year in a half. The same programs that were developed to help the disadvantaged are destroying lives one family at time and does not solve the homelessness crisis. Gloria started reaching out to numerous politicians in the last 18 years to offer common sense solutions to combat this problem. Gloria believes that social class is one of the biggest hurdles that the lower class has to deal with, Gloria even has proof of this. For years Gloria’s fight to help the lower class, has been dismissed by the government officials who refuse to even meet with her to discuss to address these issues. Housing, a crisis like this is just as big as the fentanyl problem in this state if not bigger. Affordable housing has affected 70% of the lower- and middle-income people.
Governor Desantis has attacked almost every problem except housing in the state of Florida. Care In Action, Inc. is mostly supported by private donors along with a few small donations from working class people, as well as a few continual major donors such as the late Bob Byers from Chalfont, PA, Allan and Megan Camisa from San Diego, CA, Larry and Tammy Klum from Ohio, and Luis Dominquez from Florida.
Gloria says she thanks God for the donors who believe in her and her the impossible mission. She is also grateful for the volunteers who support the cause, yet Gloria asks for the government to do more. More importantly, reform the entitlement program which does not work and acts as an expensive trap for the poor.
Gloria has paid out of her own pocket at least $50,000 for hotel rooms for mothers with children to keep them safe and off the streets. My family can attest to this, my two autistic children and I lived at Fort Lauderdale Airport for three months until we were asked to leave in the middle of the Covid pandemic. Gloria was the only one who would help us. She paid for our hotel stay and food for us to eat. We cannot express in words how grateful and appreciative we are to Gloria for saving us. This was a year and a half ago. We have recently found a home and Gloria is still helping us.
In conclusion to this article: For me and my children, we still needed help due to limited funds. We still had a lot of things we needed. The FPL required $447.00 for a security deposit, security deposit for rent, pay for cellular phones (the government phones are too limited). We needed furniture, dishes, cookware, beds, bus passes, new clothes, you name it, we had nothing.
I am pleading for help for the people of the United States of America to come forth with donations (you can donate here) and unite with Gloria in her path to make America affordable for everyone.
Gloria would also like to connect with rapper Kodak Black to combat this cause together. Gloria says Kodak Black has a heart for helping the poor. If possible, anyone reading this article, can you help make the connection with Kodak Black This would be a great blessing!
