Around Town: La Playa Center sells over 1,000 tamales at fundraiser

The Crosscultural Council, which oversees the La Playa Center, sold more than 1,000 tamales on Hospitality Night earning more than $3,000.

Each holiday season, the students in the La Playa’s English as a second language classes prepare handmade tamales for a fundraiser. This year, a team of more than 20 students and teachers assembled and steamed tamales for three days using the Presbyterian Church’s kitchen and dining space.

The proceeds from this event are used to purchase textbooks and other educational materials for ESL classes.

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Rotary Club donates meals and gift certificates

The Laguna Beach Rotary Club gifted 85 families this Thanksgiving with full meals and gift certificates. The Rotary Club and the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach identified low-income families in need during the holiday and purchased perishable and nonperishable food and care packages.

The boxes were distributed at the Boys and Girls Club before Thanksgiving.

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Food Pantry votes Gregg Abel onto board

The Laguna Food Pantry elected architectural designer Gregg Abel to its board of directors.

Abel, owner and president of Gregg Abel Construction and Design, is new to the board but not to the pantry and its mission, according to a news release. He designed the building that houses the nonprofit’s operations at 20652 Laguna Canyon Road. Abel has been designing and building homes in Laguna Beach and surrounding areas for more than 35 years.

“Here’s a guy whose willingness to help his community is well-known,” said Dr. Korey Jorgensen, Laguna Food Pantry board president, in the release. “We are excited to welcome Gregg to our board. It was a coup to have him say yes to us just after he completed his year-long stint as the president of the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce. We feel very fortunate.”

The Laguna Food Pantry provides free groceries to shoppers from area low-income households from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call (949) 497-7121 or visit lagunafoodpantry.org.