Countywide : Food Providers Feel Bankruptcy’s Pinch

With their resources strained by Orange County’s bankruptcy, smaller nonprofit agencies that provide food are finding it more difficult to provide as much as they used to.

So officials at the Orange County Rescue Mission have decided to double their efforts to feed the poor. But Friday, officials there found an unpleasant surprise when they took stock of their food inventory.

“What we found was that our own cupboards were nearly bare,” said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Rescue Mission. “And with some of the smaller agencies closing, it means more people are going to show up at our doors. In fact, that’s already happening.”

With the holiday season only weeks away, the Rescue Mission has launched a drive to collect 40,000 cans and packages of food.

The Rescue Mission, which provides 30,000 meals a month to the homeless and poor, is not alone in needing food for its patrons.

“Everyone can always use more food,” said Dan Harney, president of the Orange County chapter of St. Vincent de Paul, which runs The Food Distribution Center in Orange. Through the 280 nonprofit agencies that obtain food from the distribution center, 180,000 people were fed last year, Harney said.

To donate food to the Orange County Rescue Mission, call: (714) 863-8290, Ext. 3.