THE OTHER SIDE: Orange County may have...

THE OTHER SIDE: Orange County may have its affluent enclaves, but those who work with the poor say that more than 400,000 people here are at risk of being hungry--most of them children and the elderly. For 12 years, the Food Distribution Center in Orange, a nonprofit food bank that collects donated and surplus food, has been doing its best to feed as many as it can. It distributes the food through more than 250 local charities. . . . But one statistic that bothers its leaders: About 2.5 million pounds of food are wasted in the county-- each month .

FROM WINE TO SOUP: The title may seem a little splashy: The South Coast Plaza Summer Food & Wine Festival. But the cause is somber: feeding the county’s hungry. . . . The June 22 festival--at the shopping plaza’s Crystal Court--benefits the Food Distribution Center and the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa. For $30 per person, you go from booth to booth to taste elegant food from more than 30 South Coast area restaurants. . . . If that doesn’t fill you, 65 California wineries will be there too. You can pay at the door; it runs that day from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

MERLE’S KIDS: Merle Hatleberg, who will be 72 this week, started the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, she says, “for the children. . . . One woman who comes in here has nine children. When you see them, you know why we do this.” . . . She and her staff feed a balanced meal to more than 250 people daily. Hatleberg, wheelchair-bound the last 18 months, still works her standard seven days a week. On Friday, she’ll celebrate the kitchen’s ninth anniversary with a party for her many volunteers.

MORE THAN A ROOF: Hatleberg’s experience has taught her the hungry fall into three categories. The homeless, of course. But also the working poor. “Just because you’ve got a roof over your head doesn’t mean you’ve got food in your stomach,” she says. . . . The third group: The mentally ill. Says Hatleberg: “So many of these people fall through the cracks, especially with government cutbacks. Thank God many of them can find my kitchen.”