200 Street People Get Warm Gifts of Donated Jackets

About 200 homeless people who gathered for their weekly picnic of vegetarian stews on Sunday also received a much-needed Christmas present--jackets.

The Long Beach Housing Action Assn., a tenants-rights advocacy group, and the Long Beach Area Citizens Involved, a liberal watchdog group, distributed athletic jackets to the homeless who gathered at Lincoln Park in downtown.

“They don’t have much of anything, and it’s cold out there,” said Marshall Blesofsky, one of the organizers. The jackets were donated by a sporting goods store.

The vegetarian meals have been served for the past year at the park near City Hall by Food Not Bombs, an organization consisting mostly of college students. Last Sunday, the group also handed out vitamins donated by health food stores, said Pam Miera, a member of the organization.