Feeding the Needy : Ministry to Rise Again After Fire

“We’re here, and we’re going to stay here,” said the Rev. Louis F. Forkell, sitting less than 50 feet from the burned-out warehouse that until early Thursday contained $100,000 worth of food for the poor.

Orange County fire officials said Friday that they were still investigating the cause of the fire, which destroyed the 8,500-square-foot structure in an unincorporated area of Orange.

“The shock is gone now, and the joy has set in,” Forkell said. The building’s owner, Gene Straud, has told Forkell that he intends to begin rebuilding the structure as soon as possible and that the group would be welcome to continue as tenants.

Supporters Call to Help

The group is known as LORDS, which stands for Lord Our Righteous David’s Seed. It is a voluntary, nonprofit, tax-exempt agency that receives no public funding. According to a LORDS Ministry brochure, the group was founded by Forkell and his wife in Anaheim in January, 1978, and began its program of feeding the poor with 33 cans of food stored in a rented garage.

The telephone in Forkell’s office, which was without power but otherwise undamaged by the blaze, had been ringing throughout the day, he said Friday, with friends and supporters calling to see what they could do to help.

Despite the rubble, twisted wreckage and acrid smoke that still hung in the air, Forkell and other members of the Orange County-based LORDS Ministry were at work, trying to repair the pipeline that each month has moved donated food to an estimated 30,000 people in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as Mexico.

“People are still doing their jobs,” said Forkell, 55, who has been distributing food to the poor since 1978.

Warehouse Space Needed

Rather than food, which many people have offered, Forkell said what the ministry needs most now is temporary warehouse space, refrigeration units, a bed for a partly burned truck and replacement machinery for forklift trucks and the electric pallet jack that were destroyed.

“We use modern equipment to do a modern job,” Forkell said. The pallet jack, for example, cost $40,000 and was neither paid for nor insured.

Forkell said the ministry was aiming for “an uninterrupted flow” of produce, canned and baked goods, dairy products and meat to those who have depended on it, starting Monday.

“This weekend will tell a lot of stories,” he said. “We are getting results.”

At first, distribution is planned “on a limited scale,” Forkell said, targeting large families and single-parent households that constitute about 25% of LORDS’ caseload.

“We never turned anybody away, and we don’t intend to turn anybody away,” he said.

Needy individuals and local agencies have received food from the ministry at the warehouse. LORDS also has delivered the food directly to institutions and individuals that in turn have distributed it to families in their areas.

$15 for 100 Pounds of Food

Agencies and individuals able to afford it pay $15 for 100 pounds of food, packed in two boxes, that are supposed to last an average-size family one week. According to a LORDS’ brochure, state law prohibits charging recipients for donated food.

If the ministry’s surviving trailers are insufficient to handle the flow, Forkell said, some of his food suppliers have said they are willing to provide goods directly to local distributers for a short period. LORDS’ main suppliers, he said, are the Los Angeles Union Terminal and several grocery chains, canning companies, brokers and bakeries.

“These businesses normally don’t like cars pulling up to their loading dock, taking a little of this and a little of that,” Forkell said. “We’ve built up a rapport with our suppliers.”

Dairy and meat products usually are purchased at reduced cost from cash donations. One creditor, a dairy owner, called in tears after the fire, Forkell said, telling him not worry about the bill until the operation is back on its feet.