ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Extending a Helping Hand

The Orange City Council last week gave preliminary approval to an ordinance that will force good Samaritan Mary McAnena to move her food line for the homeless from W. O. Hart Park within about three months.

In the meantime, Mayor Gene Beyer and City Councilman Fred L. Berrera have promised to form a committee to help McAnena relocate, perhaps to St. Vincent de Paul Society’s Orange chapter. That’s good, because McAnena, who is 89, will need all the help she can get to carry on with her mission of mercy, which feeds about 200 homeless people a day on weekdays.

McAnena, who lives near the park, began assisting the homeless more than five years ago after she spotted a few cold, hungry people huddling beneath a bridge near her home during a cold spell. Unlike so many of us, McAnena, a widow who spent most of her first eight decades in her native Ireland, could not simply turn away. She found blankets and food.

Before long, McAnena was using her own pension to feed a dozen or more homeless people in the park. That number grew, and others joined in to prepare or donate food.

But, as the operation became larger, neighbors began to complain that the people who were drawn to the park for food lingered to commit crimes or intimidate residents. Ironically, McAnena herself was intimidated by some of the residents who were angered by the food line. A deeply religious person, McAnena persisted despite her fear, believing that helping the needy was the purpose of her life. Unfortunately, the city of Orange could not find a way to cooperate in that vision.

The city, and even the residents who so strongly protested the presence of the food line in the park, say they are not hardhearted but just don’t want their park taken over by the homeless.

There’s one way they can show that’s really the case. They can help McAnena find another location for her good works. If that can’t be done, a worthwhile operation that is helping to feed people who might otherwise go hungry will have to be abandoned.