Mary’s Kitchen Keeps Cooking Up Charity

Despite the death of the woman who started Mary’s Kitchen, a refuge for hungry and homeless people, her mission and vision live on.

Mary McAnena, who was 100 when she died in her sleep Tuesday, was a legend in the community for her tenacious fundraising and devotion to helping people in need, and those people will not go wanting, said Gloria Suess, McAnena’s assistant.

“Nobody will ever take Mary’s place,” Suess said, “but we will do what she wanted us to do. We will feed people every day.”

And McAnena’s dream of a permanent shelter that would provide beds and some social services is very much alive, she added.

Bob Guiffra, one of her six grandchildren, said her charitable work began long ago on the west coast of Ireland. In the early part of the 20th century, Guiffra said, there was a lot of hunger in Ireland, and even then her family would take in people less fortunate.

Soon after she came to America in 1921 in search of a better life, she went into training as a nurse and worked as one in Manhattan for 30 years.

“During the Depression,” Guiffra said, “my grandfather and grandmother would take people off the street and have them stay with them.”

When they moved to Orange in 1977, Mary -- then 74 -- worked as a wedding coordinator at Holy Family Cathedral and taught English to newly arrived Vietnamese children.

“There are a lot of Vietnamese who speak English with an Irish brogue” as a result, he said.

Thursday at Mary’s Kitchen, on a city-owned parcel surrounded by industrial buildings and adjoining the Orange Police Department, men and women took showers and poked among piles of donated clothes while volunteers prepared the afternoon meal of soup, salad, fresh ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, carrots, fruit salad and milk. And at the end of the line, they were given a sack lunch to take with them.

Suess, 64, a real estate broker who met McAnena when she was showing a house two doors from McAnena’s home in Orange, buzzed through the kitchen and around the small compound, shouting directions and asking questions. All the while, memories of her close friend of 18 years danced across her mind.

Like when they first met. True to her style, McAnena walked up to Suess while she was showing the house and said, “My name is Mary, and you should help me feed my boys.”

That was her no-nonsense style. She was known for requesting -- and getting -- four- and five-figure checks from institutions and businessmen, and then saying, “Now I know you have some jackets in your closet that you don’t use anymore. My boys could use those jackets.”

She was a primal force who could not and would not be ignored. Mary’s Kitchen, a nonprofit corporation, has a board of seven directors. “But the only vote that counted was Mary’s,” Suess said.

Even the city property used by the kitchen has a special connection to McAnena. The kitchen gets a renewable lease to the maintenance yard every few years.

“When Mary was alive they would never kick us out,” Suess said, “and I doubt that they will now.”

And as generous as she was with those she helped, she was stingy when it came to spending the money she collected. As much as possible, it went into an account for the shelter she dreamed of. Suess wouldn’t say how much is in the account, but it will take about $1 million to make McAnena’s dream come true. And it will, Suess promises.

“Mary will come and get us if we don’t go forward and get her shelter. That was her dream.”

Like her friend, Suess directs the conversation away from herself and focuses on what is needed for the unfortunate.

“We need socks, backpacks, men’s underwear ... and razors,” she says.

“We could really use some stainless steel serving tables,” she says, watching as the food is handed out.

Every day, about 80 people come to the compound and are fed, get some clothes if they need them and take a shower. Each weekday, a separate crew takes charge of the cooking, distribution and cleanup. On weekends, McAnena’s church, Holy Family Cathedral, takes over.

On Saturday at noon, there will be a funeral service at Holy Family for McAnena with the Mass said by Bishop of Orange Tod D. Brown. A vigil in McAnena’s honor will be held Friday at 7:30 p.m., also at the cathedral.