Valley Mission Serves Early Thanksgiving

ENCINO —  Thanksgiving came a day early for more than 100 homeless people.

The San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, a recently formed organization, sponsored a traditional turkey dinner for the homeless Wednesday served outdoors in Woodley Avenue Park.

The afternoon meal, under clear skies, came with a bit of a sermon.

“We’re here to serve you, like we are here to serve God,” said Tim Arnold, a mission volunteer, through a sound system set up in the picnic area. He didn’t seem to mind that most of the families gathered at the wooden tables were too busy eating, chatting with friends or playing with children to pay him much attention.

Arnold, 29, said later he knows just how important a hot meal in a safe environment is to the homeless. “I was there myself not too long ago,” he said. “I was homeless.”

Earlier this year, Arnold said he enrolled in an addiction program run by the Ventura County Rescue Mission, an organization helping the Valley mission get on its feet.

“I’ve been 120 days clean and sober,” said Arnold, who came from Oxnard for the event. “You have to give something back.”

Margaret Huck and John Bradshaw were enjoying the meal with their two daughters--Faith, 4, and Fawn, 1. Some weeks, Bradshaw, 34, makes enough money as a telemarketer to get a room for the family in a motel. Currently, they live in a van.

“If it wasn’t for this meal, we would probably be panhandling today or picking up bottles for recycling,” said Huck, 27, as she fed Fawn.

Huck spends days with the girls in the Valley, but they all drive to Hollywood at night to park and sleep. “If you park out here, the police might notice you,” Huck explained. “In Hollywood, there is so much crime and other things going on that they don’t bother with you.”

Irving Gill, 66, said that, while he’s not homeless, his Social Security check is not enough to cover food and other expenses.

“This is a very good meal,” said Gill, and he is an experienced hand at finding charity dinners. “Tomorrow I have three of them I can go to,” he said, “but I like the one at the Hard Rock Cafe the best.”

Gill planned to ride a bus, provided by the Beverly Center restaurant, that takes homeless people to the annual free meal there. “If you just walk in,” he confided, “It can take a couple of hours before you get fed.”

Frank Ellis, 65, and Ramona Ford, 45, smiled often at each other during the meal. “The police say we’re homeless,” said Ellis, who has used crutches to walk since he was injured doing maintenance work in the Air Force in the early 1960s. “But I don’t consider that we are.”

The couple live in a motor home they park on the streets. Ford said she is unable to work because she has epileptic seizures. “If I get too nervous, too mad, then they can come,” she said of the seizures. “The stress can bring them on.”

Homeless life is, of course, inherently stressful. But Ford said she has seldom felt better. “If I had not met Frank five years ago, I don’t know what would have happened to me,” Ford said. “He jokes with me, gets me laughing, and then I’m fine.”