Abrazar Helpers Reach Out With Holiday Food : Giving: O.C. community center and 30 volunteers help 500 families turn $25 fees into $125 cartloads.

By mid-morning Saturday, a long line of families had slowly wound its way to the entrance of Abrazar Inc., where volunteers whisked food-filled shopping carts to their cars during the center’s 15th annual Christmas food giveaway.

Most of the community center’s volunteers are from the area, but Fernando Andong, 59, traveled from Norwalk to help distribute the food this weekend.

And he would make the commute any day, he said, as he tried to dodge a runaway shopping cart brimming with cereals, ham, eggs and milk.

It was a long day for Andong and 30 other volunteers who gave the needy of Orange County 250 carts of food Saturday and will give out another 250 today. As a nonprofit community center, Abrazar, which means “to hug” in Spanish, provides various services for the needy.

“We had people all the way out to the sidewalk, and we could only fill up 10 shopping carts at a time,” said Andong, a member of the board of directors who has been with Abrazar for two years, but moved to Norwalk last April.

The center’s volunteers, from age 15 to 74, began stuffing bags with food Dec. 5 in preparation for this weekend’s giveaway. The volunteers are recruited through word-of-mouth, but some are also clients who have received food or other assistance in the past.

Although the lines had dwindled by mid-afternoon, the center hummed with activity. One after another, the volunteers filled the shopping carts, which had been borrowed from a Lucky Food Center, and then began stuffing bags for today’s giveaway.

This is the season when many charities give away food baskets, but Abrazar literally gives the needy their food in a shopping cart, which is used to haul the goods to people’s cars. Most are shocked to receive such an abundant amount of food, Director Gloria McDonough said.

“For the most part, people are in disbelief,” McDonough said. “A lot of the viejitas (old women) who come in, look at the food and say, ‘This whole basket is for me?’ It’s a lot of work, but it’s so much fun to see the faces of the kids, the moms and the abuelitas (grandmothers).”

Those who picked up their food said they were happy with the food and service.

“I chose to go Abrazar because everyone speaks Spanish,” said Carolina Rosa, a Westminster resident. “I’ve gone to other American food pantries, but we have problems with the language--they don’t speak Spanish. Practically everyone in Abrazar speaks Spanish and, well, that makes you feel good.”

Last month, each family paid a $25 contribution for food valued at $125. This weekend all they had to do was present their receipt in exchange for a ticket, and a volunteer quickly wheeled their cart of food to their car.

“When we were giving outright giveaways people were not as responsible,” McDonough said. “But when people have a stake in it, they are here and on time because they paid for it.”

Abrazar could only give away 500 carts of food this weekend because of limited space in the center’s building, McDonough said.

The Food Distribution Center, a food bank in Orange, and the Navidad En El Barrio organization in the City of Industry donated chicken, canned goods, cheese and tortillas. The rest of the food supply was bought by Abrazar volunteers with donated funds.

McDonough expects another throng of people today, but said their system works like clockwork.

“We get about 40 to 50 families every hour on the hour,” McDonough said.