Southland Poor Given 50,000 Pounds of Lamb

Hungry people in Southern California will be treated to lamb stew, shish kebab and lamb patties--enough for 100,000 meals--as the result of a donation of meat by a New York-based company whose owners say they are grateful for a booming year of business.

The New Zealand Lamb Co. recently donated 100,000 pounds of New Zealand lamb to the homeless in New York and decided to donate 50,000 pounds in Los Angeles, said Fred MacFarlane, a spokesman for Mayor Tom Bradley. On Friday the company received a plaque from Bradley for the gift.

The shipment of fresh-frozen spring lamb will be distributed beginning Monday by the Community Food Resources Bank and the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles to 74 relief agencies in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The first shipment of 30,000 pounds, contained in 60-pound boxes, will be fully distributed by late Monday, with a second shipment expected in about a week.

An officer for the company in New York said Saturday that executives decided to make the gift because 1985 was a banner year for the firm’s sales of imported lamb to the United States.

“We had a tremendous period of growth and we’d like to return something back to the community,” the spokesman said. “This is a first-quality product, the same lamb we sell to restaurants.”

The company, he said, has a distribution and sales plant in Santa Fe Springs that would oversee the Los Angeles shipments.

“It is this type of partnership between the private sector and government that best serves the people of Los Angeles who are most in need,” said Bradley.