Food Boxes Help the Poor to Feed a Child : Nutrition: New federal program can aid about 5,000 Orange County families a month, administrator says.

Sang Nguyen has been in the United States for only five months but already has had to face grim economic realities.

Nguyen, 41, and his wife, Kim, 35, unemployed refugees from Vietnam, have been hard-pressed to pay monthly rent and utility bills at their Stanton apartment while also providing their two young children with the nutritional foods they will need to grow and prosper in a new land.

So when Nguyen heard about a new supplemental food program being offered by the county’s Community Development Council, he vowed that his family would be among the first in line.

“These are the foods that are good for the children,” Nguyen said Saturday, pointing to boxes filled with fruit juice, cornmeal, canned vegetables and evaporated milk.

The Nguyens were among hundreds of families who lined up at the Community Development Council’s headquarters to receive the first boxes of food distributed under the federal Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

The program, administered by the state Department of Education, is designed to provide low-income mothers, infants and children with bulk quantities of the kinds of nutritional foods they might ordinarily be unable to afford.

The boxes, containing an assortment of canned fruits, vegetables, rice, cheese, egg mix, peanut butter, nonfat dry milk and infant formula, average about 40 pounds and have a retail value of about $56.

Participants must be income-eligible. For a family of four, for example, income may not exceed $23,495 a year. However, families already participating in other county welfare programs such as Medi-Cal, Aid to Families with Dependent Children or food stamps qualify automatically.

County officials estimate that more than 60,000 families may be eligible for food assistance. The federal Women, Infants and Children food program, designed to serve the same population but offering food vouchers rather than boxes of food, can serve about 19,000 families a month.

The program will serve a maximum of about 5,000 families monthly, said Clarence (Buddy) Ray, executive director of the Community Development Council.

The council, Orange County’s official anti-poverty agency, provides assistance to low- and fixed-income residents, including food, utility rent assistance, transportation services and housing referrals.

Food boxes will eventually contain information on nutrition and even menus, Ray said, and officials also hope to offer nutrition classes to program participants.

The Orange County program is only the second in the state and county officials are hoping that their initial one-year grant will be renewed on an ongoing basis.

“I think the fact that, on fairly short notice, we can get so many people signed up and standing in line is evidence of the need out there,” Ray said.

Mike and Rogeane Ray are hoping their need will be temporary. The Rays have a steady income from Mike’s retail sales job, but like many of the families standing in line Saturday, the Rays said their income is too little to make ends meet.

The Anaheim couple said the food they receive through the program will make it much easier to feed their 3-year-old daughter and 5-week-old son.

“We can go to the grocery store and get most of the things we need, but this will definitely help fill in the gaps,” Mike Ray said.