Answering SOS’ Needs

COSTA MESA —  Some call them guardian angels, others a safety net or simply people who care. By whatever name, for 27 years Share Our Selves has been providing emergency food, funds and shelter to the poor and homeless. Through the help of volunteers and private donors, the organization has toiled with little fanfare.

Now its work on retrieving surplus food from restaurants and markets has caught the attention of Foodchain, a national network of hunger relief programs.

Share Our Selves, known by the acronym SOS, is among nine organizations nationwide that will receive $5,000 grants from Foodchain next month to plan job-training and food-recycling programs.

Foodchain’s efforts were praised by President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore during the Summit on Volunteerism in Philadelphia in April and the Summit on Food Recovery in Washington last month.

“This is a national effort to help fight the causes of hunger,” SOS Executive Director Karen McGlinn said. “We are doing the food retrieval program already, but this grant allows us to study whether setting up a job-training program is feasible.”

For seven years, SOS has been contacting restaurants and markets throughout Orange County to collect food that would be thrown away.

“SOS is the last place for a lot of people to go,” said Michael Kang, chef and owner of Five Feet Restaurant in Laguna Beach.

“Food is not efficiently used. It goes unused or thrown away,” said Kang, an advocate for the food retrieval program since it began. “Working with SOS is a natural marriage; that’s why I help out.”

More than 420 volunteers at the center sort food from markets and restaurants and distribute it to the needy. On average, SOS gives out about 300 bags of food daily, with each bag containing about $25 worth of food.

Besides the food retrieval program, the Foodchain grant will allow SOS to train people to prepare meals.

McGlinn said the majority of the center’s clients want to improve their future but lack the tools. She said the job-training program will also teach basic skills such has how to dress and prepare for an interview.

SOS also houses a free medical and dental clinic.

“Most of our clients lack education and do not know how to take care of themselves,” said Dr. Ann Zielinski, the clinic’s medical director. “We care for those who have no other access to medical care. I think we are their safety net in Orange County.”