Hopes of Needy for New Year : The poor: Like everyone else, the hungry have dreams for 1990.

Year’s end is traditionally a time of renewal and new beginnings. It is a time of reminiscing and predicting, of New Year’s resolutions, promises and hopefulness. But there are many in society whose voices are seldom heard. They, like everyone else, have hopes and dreams for the new year and new decade.

What follows is a sampling of those thoughts, taken from among more than 4,000 people who gathered at the Orange County Rescue Mission for a Christmas Day meal Monday.

* Marcela Jimenez, 13, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, who has lived with her family in Santa Ana for five years:

“I hope for the new year that all of my family can live together in peace. I have one brother and two sisters, and the whole family is here today except my brother and father, who are working. I’m in the eighth grade and I want to be a doctor, so I hope in the next few years to be able to do all I can to get a good education.”

* Grant Johnson, 33, originally from Tyler, Tex., who has lived in Orange County for 1 1/2 years, “mostly drifting from one job to another looking for something permanent”:

“I have a lot of hopes for the new year, like making enough money to get off the streets. There are so many people out here like me; they just need a chance to get on their feet. I never would have believed the (homeless) situation if it hadn’t happened to me, but there I was, out of a job and with no money to keep my place. But you have to be hopeful; that’s the only way to survive.”

* Danny Brown, 26, of Santa Ana, an unemployed chef who has been staying at the mission:

“I would like to see more government support for the homeless, for low-income housing and for jobs. I was laid off a month ago, lost my home, had my car repossessed and now I’m living out of a duffel bag. But I am going to get myself together. And when I do, I’m going to try to do something for these people who have helped me.”

* Dennis Chavez, 26, of Santa Ana, unemployed, who said he was surprised to see so many children waiting in line at the mission:

“This is really something, isn’t it? My wish is for the kids, not just here, kids everywhere. Kids who lost their parents in Panama, or what’s the other place . . . Romania. Kids in slums in Mexico City and South Central (Los Angeles). We’re adults, we got to make it better for them. They ought to be an inspiration to us to do the right thing.”

* Cheryl Davison, 37, still looking for a permanent job along with the husband with whom she arrived here two years ago from Michigan:

“Love, love, love. Live, live, live. You never know what’s going to happen. Two years ago we had pigs and cows and chickens. Today, we have whatever we scrape up. But I’m still happy. Someday I may have chickens again, but if I had never been where I am now, I’d never have known these great people. You have to be ready for all the surprises life has in store.”

* Norris Billups, 32, originally from Los Angeles, unemployed for two years:

“I want a job, anything at all. But the jobs they want to give you are not adequate to live on. You can’t afford to get an apartment if you work for minimum wage. . . . Another thing I hope is that the police stop harassing me. That’s one reason I haven’t been able to get work: I’ve been in jail. Just for no reason, (the police) stop you just for being here. Maybe next year I’ll move out of California, anywhere, I don’t know.”

* Raymond C. Fico, founder and president of the Anaheim-based group Covering Wings, which dispenses food and blankets to the homeless in Los Angeles and Orange counties, and a retired chaplain who served at Orange County Juvenile Hall for 25 years:

“We handed out 60,000 blankets so far this year, and we’re going to run out of the lot here before the day is over. I’m 70 years old. I’m supposed to be retired. I bought a trailer, and my wife and I were supposed to go on vacation, but there were greater things to do. . . . I was wounded in World War II, and one of things I promised was to give something back if I recovered. . . . Next year’s goal is to give out 100,000 blankets. I think we can make it.”