Sanhoti Bridges Bengali Heritage And Local Charity In Orange County

By Anindya Chatterjee

COSTA MESA, CA – In September 2025, a group of Bengali families from across Southern Orange County gathered at a high school in Costa Mesa for something new: a Durga Puja celebration built entirely from scratch, by volunteers, for a community that had long driven to Los Angeles or further to feel at home in this tradition. For many of the families involved, it was the first time they didn’t have to choose between preserving their heritage and staying close to home.

They called the organization Sanhoti – Bengali for “solidarity.” It was a fitting name for what would happen next.

One year later, Sanhoti has outgrown its first home, moving its Durga Puja celebration to a larger venue and drawing a fast-growing membership base. That kind of growth in a single year is notable for a nonprofit founded in 2025 — a sign that Southern California’s Bengali community had a real, unmet demand for a home like this.

But the more interesting part of Sanhoti’s story isn’t the size of its celebration. It’s what the organization has chosen to do with the momentum it built.

As a registered 501(c)(3), Sanhoti didn’t stop at throwing a good party. Within its first two years, the all-volunteer group turned its new community into a base for charitable work reaching well beyond its own cultural circle.

Members have fielded a team for Second Harvest Food Bank’s Walk to Feed OC, joining the fight against food insecurity across the county, and the organization has extended that partnership further with Food For All With Sanhoti, a food distribution event run in collaboration with Second Harvest.

In both 2025 and 2026, Sanhoti also organized charity fundraisers benefiting Laura’s House, a local nonprofit supporting survivors of domestic violence, a cause chosen not for any cultural tie-in, but because it mattered to the broader community the group now calls home.

Sanhoti while also building outward, has been treating philanthropy as part of its founding identity rather than a future goal.

It’s a pattern that shows up repeatedly in immigrant communities: cultural preservation and civic participation reinforce each other rather than compete. A community that builds a strong, visible home for its own traditions often finds it has more, not less, to give its neighbors.

For more: www.sanhoti.org.