MISSION VIEJO : Center for the Needy Awaiting Eviction

Thousands of needy families will no longer receive food and clothing from the largest distribution center in South County, which received a three-day eviction notice Wednesday.

Adopt-A-Neighbor Food and Outreach center, an all-volunteer agency that provides food, shelter and clothing to the needy, was unable to come up with the monthly $1,200 rent by Wednesday’s deadline for its warehouse at 25651 Taladro Circle.

Pettee Industries Inc., which owns the 1,800-square-foot warehouse, notified the center operators 10 days ago that they had until Wednesday to pay the rent, Pettee spokeswoman Maria Garcia said. If they don’t pay in three days, she said, the company will change the locks.

The center, which is nestled among other businesses, has old, steel shelves lined with canned goods and boxes of instant potatoes, macaroni with cheese and Hamburger Helper, all packaged in milk crates. About 12 refrigerators store eggs, milk, butter, lettuce and fruits. Freezers store meat, and diapers line one shelf.

“I have been doing this since 1972 in Orange County,” said Kathryn McCullough, 47, founder and executive director of the center. “All this time, my husband and I and a few close friends have contributed food, money and time as volunteers. Don’t you think it’s time some of the wealth here in this community could do something? There are not enough people in this valley who realize the situation and the desperate need for their help.”

McCullough explained that outside communities are reluctant to offer assistance because of the feeling that an affluent community like Mission Viejo has enough wealth to provide for its poor.

McCullough and her husband, Christopher, are both ministers ordained in the Boatwright Ministry, a fundamentalist Christian group. Christopher McCullough, 49, helps at the center when not working as a revenue clerk with the transportation division of Orange County’s General Services Agency.

The center takes surplus federal goods and donated food into lower-income housing and mobile park areas.

People hear about the center “by word of mouth,” Kathryn McCullough said. “They come to the (ware)house and we give food. If they need a week’s worth of food, I give them a week’s worth of food.”

The center opened at the warehouse in September, 1988. Before that, the McCulloughs distributed food and goods to the needy from their El Toro home. But when the number of families arriving there for help reached the thousands, they said, they sought larger quarters.

The center has three full-time volunteers, seven others who collect donations from supermarkets and churches, and up to 100 more who can be called on to help, Kathryn McCullough said.

Volunteers aren’t the problem, she said. Money is.

“We have borrowed all we could on the house, and our friends have loaned us all they could,” she said.

In May, the County Board of Supervisors gave the center $5,000. The McCulloughs received a loan on their home for $5,000 to pay for the first and last month’s rent and security deposit, she said.

“We stretched that money out as far as we could. Now the well is dry,” she added.

If evicted, the center has no other resources with which to relocate, Kathryn McCullough said. “We’ll be open for business until the owner comes with a lock on the door and a sheriff to get us out of here,” she said.