- Video shows the story of the man behind the Instagram page Delano Voice. After being homeless for 62 days in Los Angeles, James Wright says it was always a dream of his to give back to the community.
- Wright moved to Delano in 2017 — with the page starting a couple months late.
- The page is also used to coordinate community events that Delano Voice hosts.
James Wright started the Delano Voice Instagram page back in 2018 as a way to give back to his community after going through personal hardships.
He was homeless in Los Angeles for 62 days -- when Wright says he was helped by a stranger.
And now he's spending his days trying to give back any way he can.
“I was helping a bunch homeless people and doing dinners in LA every Friday and I didn’t basically pay attention to my budget and I went bankrupt,” Wright says.
Although he ended up in a difficult situation, Wright says he is blessed knowing he was able to help others with what he could provide.
But this was just the start of his advocacy. After getting back on his feet and moving to Delano in 2017.
And Wright knew he wanted to continue his work.
“I wanted to create a page where people can come and you know ask for help or speak their mind without fear or backlash or embarrassment from community members,” Wright says.
It has been five years since the start of Delano Voice, now having roughly 3,500 followers — Wright says it’s been a blessing to give back to people who are currently experiencing similar hardships.
“My grandma always told me my rewards don’t lie here — that my rewards will come later,” Wright says.
Wright says the initial idea behind Delano Voice was to simply share others’ community events and shed light on the family-owned businesses around town — but he says he later started to add his own advertisements for dinner events to feed the citizens of Delano.
“In the past five years we’ve probably fed — given out over 5,000 plates of food we’ve done Halloween events, we’ve done Christmas events, we’ve done Easter events,” Wright says.
Wright says although he values the work food banks do to distribute non-perishable food items — he says there’s nothing like a hot meal.
Wright says he is a strong believer that every family should have the chance to dine like one — saying the only thing he wants out of this is to set a good example for his children.
“I want them to grow up to know that it's better to help people than to put people down. It takes less to pick somebody up than to keep pushing them down,” Wright says.
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