The Crowd: A bumper crop for Second Harvest
For 22 years, a group called the Harvesters has gathered in the fall to raise funds in support of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. The group’s mission: Feed the hungry in our own backyard.
The rallying call is a Paris runway fashion show and luncheon, sponsored by South Coast Plaza. Big bucks are raised. This year, the Oct. 14 event netted $470,000. By extrapolating, organizers say 1.4 million people will be fed in Orange County in the coming year. That’s amazing.
Actually, the amazing part is that the need is so great. In one of the wealthiest communities in the nation, if not the world, there is a need for 1.4 million meals to be provided. This is shameful.
The Harvesters have been fundraising for more than two decades, and the crisis grows exponentially. While hunger is not being eradicated, at least there are organizations at the ready to make a difference, the Harvesters and Second Harvest Food Bank among them.
Remembering that this is the O.C., after all, high fashion plays a significant role in the social milieu. The Harvesters fashion show is the platinum fall fashion presentation on the coast. It does not get any more glamorous than this. Tickets sell out in a flash as ladies of the O.C. aim for prime seating in the Samueli Theater at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
The day of fall style began Oct. 14 with a champagne reception, and the host this season was Jaeger-Le Coultre. A silent auction of incredible South Coast Plaza merchandise beckoned. The crowd was ushered into Samueli for a late-morning runway show.
The music pulsed, lights flashed and, following a gracious opening welcome from event co-chairs Irene Martino and Melinda Serra, exquisite models hit the catwalk displaying the edgy, the new and the traditional in fall 2014 fashion.
European and U.S. design houses participating included Barbara Bui, Chloé, Dior, Fendi, Guicci, Lanvin, Max Mara, Oscar de la Renta, Roberto Cavalli, Salvatore Ferragamo, Valentino and Versace.
Among the more than 400 patrons supporting the Harvesters were major underwriters Lilly Merage and her daughter Michelle Janavs, Anton and Jennifer Segerstrom, and co-founders of the organization Jill Johnson-Tucker and Jennifer Van Bergh. Kathryn Cenci, director of community relations for South Coast Plaza, accepted the grateful thanks from the organizers for her efforts in planning and presenting the fashion show.
Luncheon was served in the elegant, contemporary, soaring foyer of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Catering was by Patina and smart décor by Square Root Designs.
Since their founding in 1992, the Harvesters have raised nearly $6 million for the food bank. Volunteers have contributed more than 2 million hours of service, and the equivalent of 5 million meals have been offered to O.C.’s hungry.
To learn more, please contact Harvesters advisory board member Alex Parker at (949) 500-1299 or go to the Second Harvest website at https://www.feedoc.org.
THE CROWD runs Fridays. B.W. Cook is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.
