Many Find Cupboards Are Bare at Food Bank : Social services: Federally funded program feeds 5,900 clients a month, but 2,600 others are on the waiting list.

One by one, they coasted up to the curb at the drive-through food bank on MacArthur Boulevard in Costa Mesa. Pregnant women and mothers with young children mostly, they began lining up at 8:30 one recent morning for a chance to stock up on free evaporated milk, baby formula, tuna fish, egg mix and fruit.

“This helps out a lot, especially when it comes to the baby formula, because it’s so expensive,” said Christina Romero, 24, who has a 20-month-old daughter and is expecting her second child in August.

“Without this, we would really have a hard time,” said Romero, a Fullerton resident whose husband was laid off last year from his job as a repairman at a naval yard and has been out of work ever since.

But the Romeros are among the lucky ones.

More than 2,600 others--mostly infants and young children from low-income families--are on the waiting list for this federally funded food program administered by the Orange County Development Council.

In desperation, officials at the anti-poverty agency are seeking an emergency funding increase of $9,661 a month from the state Department of Education for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) so needy children won’t go hungry. Many of these infants and young children--some at high risk of suffering health problems--were taken off another federal nutrition program because the demand for such services in Orange County far outstrips available resources.

The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which serves a similar clientele, was recently forced to cut its Orange County caseload by 15%--more than 3,400 people. CSFP officials said they are seeking emergency funds in order to pick up some of the people that WIC is unable to serve.

“We’ve already asked for a regular increase in our caseload, but if we have to wait for that to come through, there’s 3,000 children who just won’t eat,” said Casey McFall, program manager for CSFP, which is administered through the state Department of Education. “Our fingers are crossed. We’re just hoping that people will take a look at it and see that so many people are hungry and need some help.”

McFall and other CSFP officials said they are also investigating unofficial reports that some other states may not be using their entire allotments--money that Orange County food bank officials believe should be diverted here.

“We’ve heard that some states are serving under their caseload,” McFall said. “That’s unfortunate when there is such a need here in Orange County and we are having to turn away hundreds of people.”

Launched a year ago this month, the Orange County CSFP has given away 2.5 million pounds of food and serves about 5,900 clients a month, officials said. Only the second such federal program in the state, it caters to pregnant women and mothers of below-school-age children whose household incomes drop below the poverty level. Priority is given to pregnant and breast-feeding women, then to infants and children under 5. Orange County, one of two areas in the state that administer federal funds through CSFP, receives about $3.72 per person per month for administrative expenses.

Once a month, the mothers and children receive boxes of food that are provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The boxes are customized according to client needs: For instance, a woman who is pregnant or breast-feeding receives 10 13-ounce cans of evaporated milk and eight cans of vegetables and fruit, while children between the ages of 1 and 6 receive half as many cans of evaporated milk and fruit. Most of the 40-pound packages also contain a variety of rice, cheese, peanut butter, instant potatoes, raisins and other staples with a retail value of $56. The food packages are meant to supplement people’s regular diets.

All participants must be income-eligible: For a family of four, for example, household income may not exceed $23,495 per year. Families participating in other county welfare programs, such as Medi-Cal, Aid to Families With Dependent Children or food stamps, automatically qualify.

About 24,000 people are being served by WIC and CSFP combined, according to officials. However, they estimate that 60,000 others are eligible but not receiving the services because of funding shortages.

All too often, they say, people are turned away.

“We encourage people not to come down to apply, because we just don’t have any openings,” McFall said recently, as a line of cars snaked through the parking lot to a table where a volunteer took clients’ names. “We get about 400 to 500 people on our distribution days.”

The Romeros, who have been coming to the food bank for the past seven months, said they were fortunate to have signed on during the program’s infancy. They heard about the service through friends at their church.

“This program is real hush-hush,” said William Romero, 25. “The welfare office doesn’t tell you about these things. It’s basically all word of mouth.”

The Romeros, who must stretch $735 a month to cover living expenses for their family of three, said that CSFP makes the going a little less rough.

“Everybody’s talking about helping people in L.A., but it’s bad here too,” William Romero said. “Orange County is basically a middle- and upper-class county, and it seems to me like they’re trying to put the lower class out instead of helping people who have problems.”

Romero, who says he has been on a waiting list for a federal job-training program for more than a year, said he was forced to leave his family behind in Orange County and take a job in Virginia as a repairman at the Norfolk naval base.

But after two months, he said, he was laid off and returned to the area with no prospects for employment.

“This government is going to have to do more than it’s doing,” he said. “Because if a person has a family to support and he can’t get into the job market, he’s going to go to the rich man’s house on the hill and steal from him or someone else.”

Food to Go

The Orange County Development Council distributes food to pregnant women and women with small children. The monthly distribution:

30,000 cans of juice

6,000 tins of meat

5,800 bags of rice

6,000 blocks of cheese

20,000 cans of baby formula

12,000 boxes of cereal

2,700 cans of evaporated milk

5,500 bags of cornmeal

2,400 pounds of dry milk

6,000 pounds of macaroni

During the first year:

2.5 million pounds of food were distributed

About 5,900 clients were served each month

Names on the waiting list remained steady at over 2,600

Retail value of the food basket was $56

For information on eligibility, contact the OCDC at (714) 540-9293.