Soup Kitchen Worker ‘Hopes to Keep Ladling’

Thank you for Carla Rivera’s article on the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen (“She Hopes to Keep Ladling,” March 25). The inclusion of the quote from the 43-year-old construction worker “Ross” (“I’ve been coming here regularly for 2 years . . . “) inadvertently provides insight into precisely what is wrong with this sort of service group.

Why would a 43-year-old construction worker periodically visit a soup kitchen? Since no details were provided, we can only speculate. In the past few years, construction has been a lucrative source of steady employment for many Orange County residents. With base wages of between $10 and $25 per hour and periodic overtime, construction workers have managed to maintain a high standard of living for themselves and their families. How did “Ross” miss the boat? Are we to understand that during the past 2 years he has been unable to buy his own food on a construction worker’s salary? Or unable to find work in this development-happy county?

There must be more to the “Ross” story than meets the eye, and these missing details invite skepticism about the plight of many of the soup kitchen’s clientele. Like any situation where money or other tangible assets are doled out without corresponding output from the recipient, programs of this type are vulnerable to abuse. There is a growing underclass of people who value drugs, alcohol and amusements more than providing for their own well-being. These citizens are responsible for the alarming rise in the number of homeless and indigent competing with the truly needy for the few resources available for their welfare.

Is it any wonder that residents of Costa Mesa take a dim view of all the clients of the soup kitchen, having been able to view this underclass firsthand?

So to which group does “Ross” belong--the truly needy or the unduly greedy?

WAYNE R. VALIN

Santa Ana