Students Forgo Dinner So Needy Can Have One : Charity: Hundreds attending Biola donate the money they would have spent on a cafeteria meal to provide a Christmas feast for those less fortunate.

More than 250 homeless and needy people will have a traditional Christmas feast because students at Biola University gave up their dinners one day last month to raise $3,000.

More than 750 university students donated the money they would have spent on their dinners in the school cafeteria on Nov. 19 to pay for the Christmas party for the poor.

The feast, which will include turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, freshly baked bread and deserts, will be held in the multipurpose room of La Mirada High School on Dec. 13 from 5 to 9 p.m.

It will be served by about 100 students from the private liberal arts Christian college.

Invitations were being sent out this week to Los Angeles and Southeast area homeless shelters and organizations caring for the needy, said Evelyn Bellande, director of Student Ministries on campus.

Bellande said she and students who are part of the six-member Student Ministry Council came up with the idea of raising the money by going without their dinners.

“Students are required to volunteer time in Christian service while they are attending college. This was a unique way to reach out to the community and help the less fortunate,” said Bellande.

In early November, student ministry council members persuaded other students to join them in the fast.

Students were asked not to eat dinner Nov. 19, but to donate for the party the $3 to $5 they had already paid to the cafeteria through the college meal plan.

The school’s food service department agreed not to serve the typical student meal that day, which usually included three different entrees, soup, salad and dessert, said Cary Wheeland, food service manager.

“We typically would have something like grill pork chops, baked chicken, meat loaf and hamburgers as well as salad and soup,” Wheeland said.

Instead, the cafeteria served a meal that the homeless would find at a shelter, Wheeland said.

“We had ham hocks, beans, chicken noodle soup and lentils,” he said. There were no soft drinks or milk, only water. The cafeteria did not charge students for the substitute meal.

“We left the cafeteria hungry because we had a typical homeless-type meal. That was the whole idea,” said Dennis Del Valle, 20, one of the student organizers.

However, some regular food was provided in a small room adjacent to the cafeteria for students who did not wish to participate. Bellande estimated that about 15 students did not take part in homeless feeding.

Kristi Williams, another of the student organizers, said: “We were nervous at first about how the students would react to giving up a meal. But I think it really went well.”

“I think it went so well, we should make it a tradition at the school,” said Williams, 19, a sophomore English major from Santa Barbara.