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Thomas A. Fuentes believes philanthropy begins in your own zip code. More than twenty years ago, he and his wife, Jolene, would go to the supermarket once a week, buy bags full of groceries, and deliver food to a low-income Orange County family that would have otherwise gone without. The success of the weekly deliveries-which meant the difference between hunger pains and healthy eating for the family's six kids-spawned a realization in Mr. Fuentes: charity works best when it's contagious.
Mr. Fuentes got on the phone and called friends and neighbors throughout Orange County, and "as a consequence of working together and promoting volunteerism," he says, "we achieved a countywide approach that afforded enormous impact to thousands of hungry people." Today, the Orange County Food Bank founded by Mr. Fuentes and his friends in 1983 provides more than one million pounds of food every month to the community's hungry and homeless.
As Mr. Fuentes assumes his leadership role on a national board charged with overseeing the unmet legal needs of the poor, he sees parallels between his past charitable works and the challenges to come. "As important as collecting and distributing the food was, it was equally important to seek out our neighbors and explain the importance of responding to hunger needs so they do not go ignored," Mr. Fuentes says. "Let's be about educating American society of the need to provide equal justice, so more people become involved, and as a consequence we enlist and recruit enough lawyers, law students, and judges to join us in our work."
Mr. Fuentes credits "a caring family and a Catholic education" for inspiring him to serve his community; he has twice received Papal honors for his charity work. He is a leader in education, having chaired the Board of Counselors of Whittier Law School and currently serving as a Trustee of the South Orange County Community College District. He is also a leader in politics, having served as Chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County from 1984 to 2004. He was, in fact, the longest-serving GOP county chairman in all of California. His fellow county chairmen called him, "the dean."
As a lifelong Republican, Mr. Fuentes believes strongly in a limited role for the federal government, yet he believes LSC has a vital part to play in ensuring basic fairness in the civil justice system. And while Mr. Fuentes is not a lawyer, he has every intention of using his LSC Board tenure to inform his neighbors across the country about the fight for equal justice.
"There is a high responsibility of those who prosper by the law to share in good works that benefit the less fortunate of our neighbors," he says. "It will not be easy. We seek perfection from the day we are born until the day we die. I don't know when we will achieve perfection, but in the words of a great woman, it's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."
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