BUENA PARK : Program for Needy Is Pinched

Behind the X-rated movie houses on Beach Boulevard, 72-year-old Adell Colombini is hard at work in an abandoned old building.

Once it was the city’s post office. Now graffiti-covered plywood hides windows broken by vandals, and silver electrical tape holds together part of the storefront. But this is where Colombini has come to feed and clothe the poor and help in anyway possible.

“I think God put us all here for a reason,” said Colombini, who adds that she is not one of those “holy types. This is just what I was supposed to do.”

Since 1960 she has volunteered as many as 40 hours a week to help coordinate a city program that gives basic assistance to the needy. But there is something sad about this, her 30th Christmas.

Inside the warehouse, rows of neatly stacked cans line flimsy metal shelves along with an assortment of baby food, blankets and boxes. But most of the shelves are nearly empty.

“By the first of November there wasn’t a can on that shelf,” she said pointing to her stock. “I am sad. Just look at it.”

With a week left until Christmas, an estimated 500 families to feed and another 1,500 children depending on her to play Santa Claus, Colombini is afraid she won’t make it. People are just tired of giving, she speculates. “You give, give, give, people are tired of it.”

There are also more people in need of gifts. When she began this work, about 50 food boxes were distributed each month. Now, three times that amount is allocated every week.

But Colombini remains undaunted. On this day, she and a few volunteers are busy preparing bags of canned goods for the homeless. The cold warehouse is warmed by brewing coffee, and the barren walls are covered with red tinsel and bows.

Her duties are endless as the overseer of the center. She is bookkeeper, counselor, organizer and even chief writer of “begging letters.” On average, 100 boxes are filled every week with food. Everything is needed, Colombini says, from toys to string.

“I don’t mind working here, except when she kicks me in the rear end,” joked volunteer Ron Williams, a homeless man who often relies on the center for food and clothing. Williams, who lives in an abandoned bus, says that the help he got from Colombini during the last year has allowed him to get his life back on track.

“I was helped, so it is my turn to help back,” he said.

Colombini, who never had a paying job because her husband wanted her to stay home, has learned a great deal since she began this work, including how to deal with con men.

She tells of one man who drove up in a new car and parked around the corner. Each of his three daughters then separately came in for items. Then it was his turn. “I told him that I think his daughters got enough,” she said.

She also must deal with the unknown. Some of the street people “give me a rough time,” she said. “They think they deserve” her charity.

But the majority are families living check to check who can’t make ends meet. She blames high rent as the culprit.

“I am not going to refuse them. They need to live.”

This Christmas, though, some may have to go without. Carefully, Colombini calculates how much she needs before the 25th. The local Elks Club has donated $1,000 toward turkeys, she says. The empty shelves mean no stuffing, potatoes or other fixings, but if there isn’t enough food, she hopes to at least have enough toys.

A special display has been put up in a local mall, and she always gets help from local Toys-for-Tots drives.

“I will just have to do with what I got. . . . I just want them to be happy, not hungry.”