Coalition Fears Loss of Park to Aid Needy

Every Sunday, the otherwise tranquil Featherly Regional Park is suddenly deluged with people and cars. But they’re not coming for a picnic or a wilderness hike.

The big attraction is a free hot meal, a box of groceries and clothing distributed by a coalition of about 10 North County churches. On an average Sunday, the group will serve 500 to 700 people in the park, which is north of the Riverside Freeway along the Santa Ana River.

But some church members are concerned that a county plan to lease the campground to a private group will threaten their efforts.

“I don’t think a private owner is going to let all these people in to receive food,” said Janet Brown, of Canyon Hills Friends Church.

The Board of Supervisors last month approved a plan to seek a private operator for the campground in hopes of improving park facilities and attracting more recreational campers.

Robert G. Fischer, director of the county’s Department of Harbors, Beaches and Parks, said the park does not generate enough in fees to pay the cost of staffing and maintaining it.

The park, which has 119 campsites, doesn’t have facilities that many recreational vehicle parks have, such as sewer hookups. Without those, the park can’t charge RV campers the higher rates other parks charge.

Fischer acknowledged that a private operator might not allow the church coalition to continue its efforts, but distributing food is not the park’s purpose, he said.

“That service can be provided any number of places--it really is inconsistent with the reason the land was acquired,” Fischer said.

But Richard Graves, who has participated in the church effort since it began in 1986, said the program has flourished because many who come to the park would be reluctant to go to a church for a meal and groceries.

A member of Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Anaheim, Graves has spent the third Sunday of every month at Featherly Park, where he has learned about hardships and tragedies that forced some to rely on such programs.

“After awhile you get to know some of these people, you hear about their stories,” Graves said.

While the prospect of free food attracts most of the crowd, Graves said, many come for the church services the group holds. Through the service and personal counseling, he said, many lives have been improved.

He spoke of a woman who was once a bank vice president. Several “bad choices” resulted in the loss of her job and home. But after receiving assistance from the church coalition at Featherly and attending church services there, the woman was motivated to find a new job, Graves said.

While the original plan seven years ago was to offer a meal, groceries and clothing to homeless families living at the park, word of the program has attracted other homeless and low-income people from Orange and Riverside counties.

“When we started, there were about 30 to 40 people who were living at the park,” Graves said.

The park’s 15-day limit means there is a constant influx of people who make county campgrounds their home. And those who have reached their 15-day limit and pack up and move on to another campground frequently come back to Featherly each Sunday for the free food and clothes.

If the county’s plan to lease the park forces the coalition to move, Graves said, he doesn’t know what its members will do.

“This is a unique thing that has occurred. All these churches working together, all these people coming here. I just don’t know if we can duplicate that.”