Someone Does Care: New Digs for Charity

The Summer Food & Wine Festival at South Coast Plaza’s Crystal Court this week was a chance to mingle with some of the county’s more affluent folks and to sample entrees from some of its finest restaurants.

Many of the guests, myself included, stopped to pay homage to the woman wearing pearls and sitting in a wheelchair on a corner of the second floor. After missing last year’s festival because she was hospitalized, Merle Hatleberg was back at her usual spot behind the table for the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen.

Hatleberg, 74, is now in her 11th year running the Costa Mesa soup kitchen she founded. She had a special reason for smiles at this year’s festival. On July 10, she and her volunteers begin preparing more than 200 daily meals at their first permanent home--after occupying three temporary church homes.

It’s a former Chinese restaurant at 720 W. 19th St. in Costa Mesa. For the first time, Hatleberg will be able to serve her guests at the same location where the food is prepared, instead of having it trucked in from another site.

“We are all thrilled,” she said. “It took four of these [food and wine] festivals to do it.”

Each year, South Coast Plaza sends a percentage of the profits from the Summer Food & Wine Festival to Hatleberg’s soup kitchen and the nonprofit Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. Hatleberg’s children, who help her keep track of finances, say her soup kitchen gets about $20,000 annually from the event. Sometimes, there are unexpected bonuses: Thursday night, for example, one patron gave Hatleberg an additional check for $10,000 to help her cause.

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Hatleberg and her dozen or so daily volunteers serve hot meals Monday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. Hatleberg takes in the homeless, the poor and those with mental impairments.

She has a ready answer when asked why she stays with it despite her own health problems: “I do it for the kids. These families who come to me, these are mostly children. Especially in the summers, when the kids don’t have a hot meal at school.”

Bank on It: The food bank serves as a link between the hungry in Orange County and charities that feed them. Money raised goes toward 290 Orange County groups. More than 40% of the people who receive its food are children.

The problem could be alleviated if we could somehow channel more of the food we waste to those who need it. Food Bank officials estimate that 2.5 million pounds of food are wasted in Orange County alone each year.

No Mystery: I had my VCR all set the other night to tape Dean Koontz on ABC-TV’s “Politically Incorrect,” which doesn’t come on until after midnight. It’s a political talk show during which host Bill Maher invites four guests to chat about topical subjects.

I had high expectations from the very witty Koontz, who is Orange County’s most successful mystery novelist--probably the world’s most successful mystery novelist.

Problem is, Koontz could barely get a word in. Fred Williamson, a quite mediocre actor, and Sandra Bernhardt, who somehow has made a career out of talk shows, wouldn’t shut up long enough for our guy to strut his stuff.

Maybe Maher will give Koontz a repeat--with a better sampling of talk mates.

Wrap-Up: Ever since I was a little boy, I have resented change. I wanted the Dodgers to stay in Brooklyn. I thought Eisenhower should remain president forever.

High school graduation brought a melancholy mood, we seniors eager but fearful to be thrust into the world. I lamented that the small Hoosier hometown I loved so much wouldn’t be home much longer.

Later on, even leaving Vietnam was a difficult change, knowing good friends I’d made there were left behind.

Here at The Times, we have a nice tradition: The paper offers up a huge cake and a ceremony when we say goodbye to a colleague who is retiring or moving on. But each cake brings sadness to me, that our newspaper family is somehow being altered, will never be quite the same again. When dear friends Cliff Otto and Don Angel got their cakes, I didn’t think I could bear to come to work in a newsroom without them. Change.

On Thursday, I visited a friend from the newspaper who has suffered a serious stroke. Though we’re all thankful for his survival, we agonize at what this does to his life, as he starts a long, slow road of recovery.

That same afternoon, I learned that another friend, a former editor of mine, had died that afternoon. And death, we all know, brings painful change for those who loved the deceased. . . .

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When I came to work here in 1979, my three editors were Matt Goree, Bill Billiter and Don Smith. All of them eventually moved on to other things. But I well recall these three--my first set of bosses here--as a great team. They made coming to work a pleasure.

Matt died last December, the week before Christmas. Bill died in April. It was Smitty, 71, who died Thursday afternoon.

Don Smith was marvelous to work with--and for. He had one of the best laughs I’ve ever heard. He loved this county. And he never let up on his central theme for young reporters or newcomers: If you’re going to work in Orange County, then get to know the county you’re writing about.

When the Orange County Press Club recently honored Smitty for his long and distinguished journalism career, I wrote a short piece about him in this column. He called immediately to say thanks--and to pass on a good news tip.

I chuckled as I hung up the phone, which happened to be the last chance I had to talk with him. Ever the journalist, Don Smith didn’t feel he could take up a reporter’s time with chitchat unless he could offer something of substance to go with it.

We miss the great ones with stinging tears and heavy hearts. That’s something that never changes.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com