Feeding the Hungry in Pioneer Park

For the past 3 1/2 years, a group of Orange County residents has gathered every Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. at Pioneer Park in Garden Grove to distribute food, clothing, blankets and diapers to as many as 300 homeless and low-income family members from the neighborhood. On Nov. 29, a group of local homeowners appeared before the Garden Grove Community services Commission and called for that body to recommend to the City Council that Sunday potluck dinners for the poor in Pioneer Park be prohibited.

The homeowners believe that if the Sunday potlucks are moved out of the area, transient-related crimes and disturbances in their neighborhood will decrease.

I can definitely sympathize with the homeowners: No one wants to be harassed by panhandlers or wants people sleeping and defecating in their flower beds. However, three important facts stated at the commission meeting by Lt. Jordan of the Garden Grove Police Department belie the logic of the homeowners’ supposition that a prohibition on Sunday feedings will lead to a decrease in transient-related problems.

Jordan pointed out that there has been an ever-increasing transient population in the area for over 10 years. In other words, Sunday potluck dinners, which have been going on for 3 1/2 years, have not created the transient problem. The officer went on to state that the Garden Grove police, after a year of surveillance and numerous arrests, have identified a group of approximately 20 transients who are responsible for the vast majority of disturbances in the area.

Jordan also noted, repeatedly, that while the department receives an inordinate number of complaints during the week--there are virtually no calls on Sundays.

The homeowners are on the right track when they talk about a causal relationship; they’ve just got it backwards. In fact, if they were able to see through the anger which prevents a logical analysis of this problem, an anger which is in many ways justified, they might come to the conclusion that if feeding the homeless on Sundays equals a day of peace in the neighborhood, feeding the needy seven days a week might solve the problem.

The transients won’t leave the area if the City Council prohibits Sunday potlucks at Pioneer Park. The problems in the neighborhood will still be there, but there will be one difference--many people, many children, will not get the help they desperately need.

PATRICK FORD

Fullerton