COSTA MESA : Someone <i> Does </i> Care at Kitchen

Joel, a man who was laid off of his aerospace job nine months ago, sipped his turkey soup Monday, alongside a pregnant mother named Billie and her two sons, who ate pumpkin pie, bread and salad.

At the next table, 42-year-old Tom, wearing his tight camouflage fatigues, and Donna, 41, had lunch, as did about 200 other homeless and hungry people at the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in the First United Methodist Church on 19th Street.

While some of them said they were down on their luck, and others said that they were bitter, they were all happy that someone cared enough to feed them.

That someone is Merle Hatleberg.

The 69-year-old woman, who is battling breast and bone cancer, began the soup kitchen six years ago after a few homeless men knocked on her door asking for can openers to open soup cans.

Watching them gulp the cold soup was too painful for her, Hatleberg said, so she decided she had to do something about it.

“There’s a lot of people out of work, homeless and who can’t afford a meal,” Hatleberg said. “I just like to give them a good hot meal, and I never turn anyone away.”

Hatleberg and a team of volunteers dish out fresh soup and food donated by supermarkets and restaurants every day to about 250 people.

“This is a blessing,” said Billie, 32, who requested that her last name not be used. “Somebody at least gives a care.”

Billie is five months pregnant and living in a motel with her husband and two sons, ages 2 and 9.

She said she doesn’t know whether her husband will make enough money from a day job to cover the cost of renting the room.

She and her family have been homeless since October. “Sometimes, it feels pretty bad. But there’s a God up there who seems to provide for us every day, no matter what,” she said, wrapping up a few slices of bread in a plastic bag to take home.

Joel Burks, a 26-year-old unemployed warehouse worker, said that he has been living on the streets for two weeks, unable to find a new job to buy food.

“It feels like crap to be homeless. I used to call these people bums, but it’s not a funny thing. Sometimes I feel like crying,” Burks said. “I like coming here, though.”

Hatleberg, who raised eight children, said that for some, eating at the soup kitchen is the only time of day when no one will look down upon them or run them off.

“They’re always welcomed here,” she said, stirring a 30-gallon pot of turkey and rice soup.

“I get my rewards watching the kids wipe their faces after filling up on a nice, good hot meal.”

On Thanksgiving Day, the kitchen served 800 turkey meals.

At least 800 more people are expected during the rest of the holiday season, and Hatleberg is busy signing up restaurants to give leftovers to feed her guests.

Between making soup and baking bread Monday, she made a deal with Dave Denholm, owner of Wok Spirit restaurant, to bring Chinese food for the next five days.