COSTA MESA : Donations Needed for Good Friday Feast

Good Friday isn’t looking so good for the Someone Care’s Soup Kitchen’s annual Easter Feast, which usually feeds up to 700 homeless people each year.

So, Merle Hatleberg, the founder of the kitchen on West 19th Street, is making a last-minute plea for food and money.

Hatleberg has been holding the Easter Feast on Good Friday--April 14 this year--for the past nine years. But she said she has never seen the soup kitchen’s coffers so dry.

“Money is awfully hard to come by right now,” Hatleberg said. “People just don’t have it. I’ve noticed in my donations that the people who used to give me $100 without batting an eye are now sending me $25. But thank God they’re sending me something.”

Hatleberg said she needs about $400 to make the feast a success. The money would go toward paying for the use of the hall at the Rea Community Center and to buy ham and fish. Last year, 680 people were served.

The feast will be from 1 to 4 p.m. at Rea Community Center, 661 Hamilton Ave., Costa Mesa, the kitchen’s headquarters. An Easter bunny will be there to meet the children, and an Easter egg hunt will take place.

The soup kitchen, at 420 W. 19th St., in the First United Methodist Church, serves daily meals from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“Things are real tight now,” said Jack Moriarty, the manager, who wants the Easter Feast to be just right for the children. He said that about 300 children in the city are homeless or in need of food on a daily basis.

Donations of food or money can be made to the Soup Kitchen’s headquarters on Hamilton Avenue, ZIP code 92627.