Apartment Residents Treated to 2 Feasts

Residents of the Pierce Park Apartments housing complex were treated to back-to-back Thanksgiving feasts this week, courtesy of a group of volunteers who were looking to make a difference over the holidays.

Several weeks ago, New Hope Ministries, a recently established Christian ministry and food bank, agreed to donate 150 boxes of food to residents of the low-income apartments. The boxes included turkeys and other traditional fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner.

Then last week, Martin Potratz, the president of New Hope, received a phone call from a colleague in the catering business who is a member of an affiliated ministry in Simi Valley.

Rick Restifo was calling to see how the members of his Sonrise Christian Fellowship could help people during the holidays.

“We were already going to give out the 150 boxes of food,” Potratz said, “and we said, ‘Hey, why don’t we feed them a Thanksgiving meal too?’ ”

On Wednesday, after residents picked up the boxes that contained their Thanksgiving meals, they sat down to a pre-Thanksgiving meal prepared in trucks belonging to Restifo’s catering company and served by volunteers from Sonrise.

“There are a lot of families here where both the parents don’t work and they can’t afford to get what they need over the holidays,” said Ana Salazar, who lives in the complex with her five children.

“I grew up poor,” said New Hope executive director Chuck Cameron, “and I know how it feels seeing the kids not having their needs met over the holidays. To be able to help out, not just over Thanksgiving, but all year-round, is very satisfying.”