Media Helped Save Charity Dinner on Thanksgiving Day

It takes a big-hearted man like Frank Garcia to have the vision of feeding thousands of people on Thanksgiving Day. It took the generosity of corporations and especially individuals to make it happen.

Once the news media covered the story (“Donations Dip Imperils Charity Holiday Meal,” Nov. 23) regarding our being short of food donations and the drastic measures that had to be employed (gleaning green beans from an Irvine Co./Western Marketing field), generous people called us from as far away as Sylmar and Valencia with food donations.

I would like to thank The Times for taking an active interest in and for taking the time and energy to report Frank Garcia’s third annual “We Give Thanks” Thanksgiving dinner and in helping make the dinner the incredible success that it was.

With your coverage, you and your readers were responsible for making this the largest feast Frank Garcia has hosted, feeding more than 8,000 people, almost all by individual donations. Your detailed and humanistic style of reporting proved to be the saving grace that we needed.

To give you an example of the effect you had, we had fewer than 30 turkeys on Monday morning, three days before Thanksgiving (we needed 400!). We also needed practically every other food product associated with a turkey dinner. By the time we could count Wednesday afternoon, we had more than 400 turkeys, an abundance of potatoes, stuffing, croissants, pastries, milk, butter and even pumpkin pies. In addition, we received numerous financial donations, including $1,000 from a local bank. Also, this year we had a record number of volunteers, numbering over 1,000, with some people helping Frank for two to three days in a row.

As you can see, your news coverage had an incredibly positive effect. I would like to extend my thanks for helping make this dinner a success.

DIANA MARQUEZ, La Casa Garcia, Anaheim