Bigger Crowds Expected for Free Holiday Meals

A larger crowd than usual is expected to be served free meals by charities countywide this Thanksgiving Day, say the people preparing the annual holiday dinners.

In fact, the charities predict, they’ll feed substantially more people this year.

The Orange County Rescue Mission in Santa Ana, for example, is doubling the number of food baskets it will distribute to families on Thursday. Organizers said they will serve 38,000 meals--19,000 more than last year, and seven times the number two years ago.

“It’s been a trend in the last four years,” said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Rescue Mission. “We’ve grown over 400% in size because the need is so great.”

Palmer said those in need this year include many homeless people, and others such as “a father who can’t work because of a medical disability and is receiving just enough money to pay the rent, and a lot of single moms holding down basic entry-level jobs and no way of getting holiday food on the table for their kids.”

At the Orangethorpe Christian Church, home of Hot Meals Ministry in Fullerton, children will make up the majority of the recipients at a special pre-Thanksgiving dinner Monday.

When the ministry began three years ago, 40 homeless adults received the meals, which are served at 6 p.m. Mondays. Today, more than 200 people--70% of whom are children--have dinner at the church, said Norm Todd, a founder of the nonprofit private food program.

“Children line up for the 6 p.m. dinner three hours early,” Todd said. “They’re so hungry.”

Across town, the Home Front Church, which daily passes out free food and clothes to the homeless, expects to feed 750 people--250 more than last year--at its Thanksgiving feast Thursday.

Also, the Council of Orange County St. Vincent de Paul Society will distribute food baskets to 4,500 families via 28 Catholic churches from one end of the county to the other.

Volunteers from the charities that will be providing the dinners attribute the increased demand to severe shortages in government funding. Because of reduced federal, state and local assistance for food programs, the needy are depending more than ever on the largess of private agencies, organizers said.

With that help, the end result, says Frank Garcia, owner of La Casa Garcia restaurant in Anaheim, is that people who otherwise would go without will enjoy a holiday meal.

Garcia expects to feed 15,000 people--2,000 more than last year--on Thursday.

“I do this every year because the need keeps growing and I think everybody should try to help someone in need,” he said.

“We’re here to help people because they’re in desperate need,” said Ed Borrowe, pastor of the Home Front Church. “We’re taking away the pain of not having anything to eat on Thanksgiving, and that’s a big relief for them.”