Dough Boys

Four mornings a week, Bert Malcolm and Glenn Huff don their best cowboy shirts and head to the Lucky supermarket in Laguna Beach to round up day-old bread.

There, they pick up several shopping carts filled with leftover baked goods and ferry them to a nearby senior center, which uses money from the bread sales to serve a low-cost lunch to anyone older than 60.

Hauling a veritable bakery around isn’t the easiest job for a couple of elderly urban cowboys--Malcolm is 70, and Huff is 88. They do it, they say, so that less fortunate seniors can buy a loaf of bread for a quarter.

The Bread Men, as they are known to Laguna Beach locals familiar with their routine, begin their route at 9 a.m. at Malcolm’s van in the supermarket parking lot, where Huff walks from his nearby apartment. The taller Malcolm, decked out in a gold eagle cowboy shirt, leads the way inside, past pyramids of apples and oranges.

“Hi guys, how’re you doin’?” a smiling store clerk unloading bananas asked on a recent morning.

“I have lots of goodies for you today,” another clerk said, pushing a cart quickly past them.

“Oh good, I have lots of room,” Malcolm told her.

Huff, wearing a weathered brown golf cap, followed Malcolm through a set of double doors to a back room, where three shopping carts awaited--full of baked goods, still fresh, still edible, but pushed off the shelves to make room for even fresher goods.

There are bags of dinner rolls, croissants, trays of cinnamon buns slathered with icing, fancy $3 loaves of bread and cupcakes nobody wanted a day later.

Malcolm and Huff aren’t impressed with the day’s take: “A little light,” Huff said.

“Sometimes they sell more than they usually do,” Malcolm explained.

The Bread Men herded the shopping carts back through the store, oblivious to glances from curious shoppers, the younger Malcolm pushing two carts to Huff’s one.

“I’ve got it easy,” Huff said.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Malcolm teased.

They piled the goods into cardboard boxes that Malcolm keeps in his van. By 9:30 a.m., they were on their way to unload everything at the local TLC program center in the American Legion Hall at 384 Legion St. (TLC, which stands for transportation, lunch and counseling, is one of 19 such programs around Orange County. All offer a noonday meal and a variety of social activities and support services.)

“Hello, Rose,” Malcolm said, greeting volunteer Rose Spreyer at the doorstep.

“Did you bring me a lemon pie?” she asked.

Thanks to the Bread Men, TLC sells baked goods at a steep discount, helping to fulfill its mission to feed seniors, who can pick up a loaf of bread, or sweets for 50 cents to $1. Something special, say a cheesecake, goes for $2 tops. Most goods have the current or next day’s date. Nothing’s stale.

“Sometimes the bread’s smashed, but it’s perfectly good,” said B.J. Gursan, a volunteer who helps with sales. “Most seniors are on a limited income, and they couldn’t afford to buy this stuff in the store. They live alone, and a loaf of bread lasts them a week.”

TLC uses proceeds from each bread sale (about $30 to $80 a day) to buy bus vouchers for seniors who otherwise couldn’t afford the trip to the center for a hot lunch. Many make the half-hour drive from Leisure World in Laguna Hills. Bread proceeds also pay for extras such as fresh melons, coffee and ice cream.

TLC is supported by the Anaheim-based Feedback Foundation, a nonprofit organization funded by the federal government through the Orange County Area Agency on Aging.

About 60 seniors come to the Laguna center for lunch, served at 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. For some, it’s their only hot meal of the day. They pay $1.50 for a multi-course meal, such as ravioli, salad, bread and dessert, and many take their leftovers for dinner. The only requirement for eating at TLC: They must be older than 60; otherwise they pay $3.

All Lucky stores donate day-old bread to the community, said Julie Jansen, manager of the Lucky in Laguna Beach. It’s up to each store to choose which local charity receives the bakery goods.

When Jansen came on board as manager a year ago, there was no question about who would receive the leftovers: Malcolm had started collecting the bread more than 20 years ago, when Lucky was still Alpha Beta.

“The bread’s been given to them for such a long time, I wasn’t about to change it,” she said. “They’re very nice gentlemen, and a lot of people know them.”

Watching them at work, Sharon Ashauer, TLC’s site manager, said: “They’re dependable, efficient and happy-go-lucky.”

The Laguna center has 54 volunteers who do everything from collect donations to entertain on piano.

Malcolm became site manager of TLC after moving to Laguna Beach 22 years ago. A retired owner of a beauty salon in Miami, he was looking for a way to keep busy. Soon after joining TLC, he started collecting the bread, and he continued even after he quit as manager four years ago.

“I’ve got to do something. It’s a bore being retired,” said Malcolm, who lives alone in a mobile home off Pacific Coast Highway, near the Lucky supermarket. “This is how I’ve come to know lots of people, and I’ve made many good friends.”

He met Huff, one of his best friends, when the latter moved from Alhambra to Laguna Beach 10 years ago and began going to the center. He’d retired from foundry work and, like Malcolm, was seeking a way to keep boredom at bay. His wife died in 1982, and for a couple of years he lived with his brother, who died. Now it’s just Huff in the small one-bedroom apartment.

Several years ago he volunteered to help Malcolm pick up the bakery items. Their friendship grew from there. Every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, after the morning’s bread delivery, they walk a couple of miles together down to the boardwalk at Laguna’s Main Beach.

They always wear cowboy shirts, because two Fridays a month they go square-dancing at Happy Squares in Westminster. Huff’s got the fancy feet; Malcolm mostly watches.

“He’s the best dancer on the floor,” Malcolm said.

When Malcolm went to Florida to visit relatives (he has no children), he took Huff. The family liked Huff so much, they told Malcolm never to return without him.

Huff, meanwhile, has three daughters, six grandchildren and “a dozen or so great-grandchildren, at last count.” They all live a good distance, so he spends his days at the center.

Huff’s reason for helping collect day-old bread? “It’s to pass the time away, I guess.”

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Do you know someone who makes a difference in your community? Please send his or her name and a description of the volunteer work to “A Gift of Time,” Life & Style, Times Orange County, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92662. Fax: (714) 966-7790. Please include your name, address and phone number.