Mission to the Rescue

More than 44,000 pounds of food were collected Tuesday for hundreds of impoverished Orange County adults and children who make their homes in rundown motels and apartment buildings.

The Oklahoma City-based Feed the Children, a nonprofit group, delivered the goods Tuesday to the Tustin-based Orange County Rescue Mission.

Mission workers said the food will be used to help “those who are financially trapped and living in rundown, low-income, drug- and gang-infested [housing] here in Orange County,” said Lisa Fujimoto, vice president of development for the Rescue Mission.

The timing of the delivery was most appropriate, given the upcoming holiday season, she said.

About 10,000 pounds of the food will be distributed for Thanksgiving Day, Fujimoto said. The rest of the nonperishables will be stockpiled for December and beyond, she said, adding that people tend to give charitably during the holidays but not consistently throughout the rest of the year.

Receiving the support are about 1,000 men, women and children who cannot afford the rent on most Orange County apartments but can afford the more inexpensive monthly rates offered by motels and some apartment buildings.

Food was distributed Tuesday to 100 families living in north Orange County. Residents living in Anaheim will receive shipments later this week..

Donating food is just one part of the Rescue Mission’s Operation Hope, which aims to help “motel families” turn their lives around. Workers also try to help residents find safer housing at its two major facilities: the Rescue Mission in Santa Ana, which helps men, women and children, and the Orange-based House of Hope for women and their children.

Two other sites to help the homeless will be available in the near future: Hope Harbor Family Facility in Anaheim and Village of Hope, being built at the closing Tustin Marine Corps Air Facility.