Raising Bread

What do you do with extra dough? The family that owns the Bridgford Food Corp. in Anaheim bakes it up and gives it to the homeless.

Janet Bridgford, her daughter-in-law, Susan Bridgford, and daughter, Linda Gantes, were among 400 who gathered last week for a lunch and fashion show at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.

The fund-raiser was organized by the Harvesters, a support group of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County.

The Food Bank (formerly known as the Food Distribution Center) supplies almost 300 charitable organizations in the county with unused food it collects from grocery stores, manufacturers, government surplus and food drives.

Bridgford donates 5,000 pounds of prepared meats, buttermilk biscuits and bread each month. “We work with the food bank because they make sure needy families are fed,” says Janet Bridgford, whose husband is company chairman Allan Bridgford.

About the event:

* On the catwalk--fashions from South Coast Plaza boutiques, including Calvin Klein, Emporio Armani, Hermes, Hugo Boss, Max Mara, Oilily, Privilege, St. John and Timberland.

* On the table--roasted sea bass and blue-point oyster chowder.

* On the agenda--to raise $220,000 (they did). All of it goes to the Food Bank, which feeds 180,000 each month--enough people to fill Disneyland six times.

For information: (714) 771-1343.