Volunteers working in the Clothing Donation Center.
What started out as a small dinner for homeless residents in a church parking lot in San Diego has quickly grown to a weekly dinner in multiple locations. Today, We See you San Diego provides dinners in two locations, Old Town and Escondido and serves between 150 to 200 individuals a week who are experiencing homelessness. Each week volunteers serve the food to guests and provide them with clothing items and hygiene kits.
Since July 2025, they have served dinners at Escondido’s Grace Church. They also assist people who want to find pathways to recovery that fit their specific needs and aspirations. There is no requirement to accept goods or services during the dinner, but opportunities are provided. Dinners include a hot meal, dessert, and live entertainment performed by the We See You band.
Executive Director and Co-Founder of We See you San Diego, Laura Chez, began serving dinners to homeless people in San Diego in 2017 when she and her family moved to San Diego from Bronx, New York. At that time only 6 people were served. Her and her husband immediately took over the weekly dinners, and the number of people served each week continued to grow. As they continued to serve people, Laura started realizing one of the common issues that her homeless friends faced, was drug abuse, so she began looking for ways to help them find recovery programs. Eventually they began partnering with organizations and treatment centers to help people who were on drugs get access to recovery programs.
One guest of the weekly dinners—who has since moved on to a residential treatment facility and shares his testimony with dinner guests, is Star. Star was living in parking lot in San Diego, addicted to methamphetamine. He was also selling drugs. His lifestyle made him afraid he was going to die.
He took a chance and allowed We See You San Diego to help him get clean and off the streets—but Star wasn’t yet ready to give up his lifestyle. When he ended up in jail, the first person he called was a member of the We See You organization. When he got out of prison, the team helped him enter a treatment program. He has remained committed to staying sober.
Star explained, “I needed a way off the streets, and out of addiction, but I had nobody. I had no family here, but We See You San Diego just embraced me from the beginning and gave me that family. They told me if I called and said yes, they would get me into a detox program. Ever since then my life has completely changed. Like, I have a family now, I have support.”
Star now proudly wears the hoodie emblazoned with the words “Hope Dealer” and works to help others who were in his situation turn their lives around.
According to their website We See You San Diego has helped over 229 people exit homelessness through residential treatment programs, served over 36,800 meals, and distributed of 94,600 pounds of clothing.
Meals at Grace Church in Escondido are served every Thursday beginning at 5 p.m. They are always looking for volunteers to help serve. To learn more about volunteer requirements, or to sign up visit weseeyousandiego.com/ volunteer-hub#requirements. We See You San Diego also accepts donations. To learn more about that or learn how to contact them, visit their website.
A member of the We See You band playing and singing.
Star, once a guest of We See You San Diego, shares his testimony, and invites guests to accept help getting off the streets and begin a pathway to recovery
Executive Director and Co-Founder of We See you San Diego, Laura Chez.