Children’s Society accepts cool gift

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- A single refrigerator doesn’t quite do the trick when

you’ve got to feed 40 hungry mouths.

At South Coast Children’s Society, a private, nonprofit treatment

center for abused boys, there’s one fridge for bread, another for meats.

A couple more stand in the center’s food storage area. But until the

recent arrival of an industrial-size fridge, courtesy of Second Harvest

Food Bank of Orange County, even that wasn’t enough.

“We’d have to order smaller amounts,” said Angelina Alford, the

society’s food service coordinator. “We couldn’t keep as much.”

Now, the $2,045 stainless steel mega-fridge takes up a large part of

the pantry and is filled to capacity with plums, peaches, juices and

milk.

The center is one of 21 charities that have received refrigerators

from Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, which collects food and

delivers it to almost 350 charities throughout the county.

Paid for by a grant from Kraft Foods Inc., the new fridges allow the

food bank to distribute more fresh produce to its member charities.

Although more fridges might go out to other charities soon, so far South

Coast Children’s Society remains the only beneficiary in Newport Beach

and Costa Mesa.

Five years ago, the 15-year-old society moved into its current home --

a nondescript building on Dover Drive that was once a psychiatric

hospital.

“It kind of has that kind of look to it,” admitted Tobin Zerfas, the

center’s program manager, walking through the building’s living quarters.

About 20 rooms, each housing two boys, lead off a long hallway. Murals

on the walls and inspirational messages such as “Positive People =

Positive Relationships” brighten up the sterile atmosphere of cold floors

and florescent lighting.

The boys are arranged according to their age, starting with quarters

for 8-year-old boys, who keep stuffed animals on their pillows. At the

other end of the hallway, the older teenagers have decorated their rooms

with posters of their sports idols and pictures of cars.

Back in the kitchen, Alford said she has difficulty satisfying

everyone with the menu selection.

“There are always going to be five of 40 that say, ‘We don’t eat

this,’ ” she said, adding that Mexican food and spaghetti are always met

with approval. “We won’t fix them beef cordon bleu. They don’t like

that.”

Her patrons, however, said they had no complaints.

“They cook well,” said one 17-year-old, showing the first signs of

peach fuzz on his chin. “They don’t just sit here and microwave it. They

know how to cook.”

After six years at the center, the teen said, he is getting ready to

head home to his family. He’d first come to live there because his mother

hadn’t been able to control him and his brothers.

Apart from therapy sessions for the boys, the center also involves

parents in the program to reunify the family at a later date. He’s seen

his mother every weekend.

“I’m out of here next month,” he said, “ ‘Cause I’ve done good.”