Boiling Point : Woman’s Food Program for Poor at Park Stirs Up Anger, Threats

When the first letter arrived on her doorstep, Mary McAnena was doing what she has done every weekday for the last five years: gathering armloads of food for homeless people in nearby W.O. Hart Park.

Thick, dark letters were scrawled on the large brown envelope: “Attention Mary.” The message inside, typewritten on ruled notebook paper, got right to the point: If McAnena did not stop her lunchtime program for the poor within one week, it said, “drastic measures” would be taken.

That unsigned letter, delivered to McAnena’s home Tuesday, blamed the 88-year-old retired nurse for bringing “bums” to the neighborhood and destroying the park, she said.

McAnena knows that some neighbors have grown increasingly unfriendly as they watched her flock of hungry grow to about 200 daily. They complain that unwashed vagrants have taken over the park and increased neighborhood crime. But Tuesday’s missive--followed by two other hostile letters Wednesday and Thursday--kicked the tension into higher gear.

Lorna Deshane, a neighbor and vocal critic of McAnena’s program, said Friday that she sent McAnena a typewritten letter of complaint recently that was signed “Outraged Victims,” but that there was “nothing threatening” in it.

Deshane said many neighbors want the lunch program stopped, but they do not wish McAnena harm.

“The anger has reached a boiling point,” she said. “We want her to feel pressure. We want that program ended. But nobody I know would have written a letter that would threaten her in any way.”

The Irish-born widow has become a fixture in the park on Santiago Creek on weekdays at 2 p.m., rain or shine, winning several local commendations for her efforts. She pays for some of the food with part of her small pension and Social Security money and depends on donations for the rest.

Each day, McAnena and a few volunteers cook lunch in her tiny kitchen and bring it to the park. Then McAnena moves among the homeless as they eat, touching their arms, telling them that she loves them.

The people who wait for McAnena in the park each day cannot understand why anyone would want the program disbanded.

“She’s the most beautiful person in the world,” said Daniel Coffman, 30, a former truck driver who has been living on the streets for three years. “If more people in this world cared like she does, there would be no homeless.”

But now the letters have ignited fear in McAnena’s heart. She double-checks the locks on all her doors and windows. The woman who used to water her garden at 10 p.m. because “everyone is so nice around here” now will not go out unaccompanied after dark.

“I’m afraid they’ll hurt me or burn down my house,” McAnena said, her voice still tinged with the brogue of her homeland. “It puts fear in me, and fear--and fear alone--is our greatest enemy.

“But I have trust in God, and I know that with God’s help, nothing will happen.”

Orange police confirmed that they are investigating the letters but would provide no further details.

McAnena said the second letter, typewritten and delivered in a white business envelope Wednesday, blamed “bums” in the park for breaking into homes and stealing money and belongings. McAnena said that letter also threatened her with a $50,000 lawsuit.

The third letter, also typewritten, was thrown over her back-yard fence Thursday afternoon in a plastic sandwich bag, accompanied by a pile of dirty clothes.

“These filthy clothes were found today in the riverbed,” the letter said. “This is a common sight after you and your helpers hand out clothing to the bums. It was once a wonderful place to walk. Now, thanks to all of yours, it’s completely trashed. You people are a scourge in this town.”

The letter went on to accuse McAnena of wreaking “disasters” on her neighbors to gain publicity for her efforts to help the poor.

Deshane said she found last weekend that two items stolen from her home were being used by vagrants camped on embankments of the Garden Grove Freeway. Returning with a police officer at her side, Deshane said, she trudged into the encampment and reclaimed the items: a sleeping bag and a blue waterproof car cover worth $100.

Deshane said she mentioned that incident in her letter to McAnena because it illustrates how McAnena’s poor and hungry have increased crime in the area.

“I’ve lived in this neighborhood 50 years,” she said. “All this sort of thing started at exactly the same time, within six months of when she started feeding those people, and it escalated with the escalation of the people” in the park.

Councilman Fred L. Barrera said that although McAnena is “a wonderful lady who has done all this work from her heart,” her lunch program has “become a bit of a problem” to neighbors because of the homeless who loiter in the area.

The city has been talking with the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s Orange chapter to arrange moving McAnena’s lunch program to that facility, where more services such as shelter and counseling could be offered. But those discussions are in the very early stages, he said.

Scott Mather, development and program director for the Orange St. Vincent de Paul, confirmed that the agency is trying to find a way to have McAnena cook and serve lunch there.

Despite her own fears, McAnena said, she will go on feeding her flock in the park until she has another place to do it. She said she harbors no anger against her opponents.

“They just do not want to know the homeless are there,” McAnena said. “They hate them. They don’t know that they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and it’s only by the grace of God that it’s not us.”