Free labor movement

Susan McCormack

COSTA MESA -- Dressed in jeans and with their sleeves rolled up, about 25

members of the Chamber of Commerce took time off from their jobs Tuesday

to do something completely violating the rules of business: work for

free.

For the first time, members of the chamber’s CM900 Club gathered about

5,000 pounds of food to provide to 100 needy families for Thanksgiving.

“We do things behind the scenes,” explained Police Chief Dave Snowden,

“like give out scholarships, plant trees. ... We don’t do it for the

press. We really want to help people.”

The group has been working for the past seven months to collect donations

of food and services. Scott Bell, president of ICI Development Co., said

collecting 2,000 pounds of turkey was an easy task.

“Albertson’s and Vons were very gracious when we asked for them,” he

said.

Tuesday morning, just about every sector of the business community was

represented, from Snowden and Fire Chief Frank Fantino to Latino activist

and attorney Manfredo Lespier and South Coast Plaza general manager David

Grant.

The group met at Newport Noodle in Newport Beach to put the boxes

together, each containing a 15- to 20-pound turkey, pies, homemade salsa,

a five-pound bag of lima beans, tortillas, rice, canned fruit and more.

After the packing was done, a surplus of hams and potatoes was dropped

off at Someone Cares soup kitchen.

In the afternoon, the men loaded the boxes into trucks and took the goods

to Shalimar Learning Center.

A crowd of several hundred women and children gathered around the group

to turn in letters Shalimar had given them to redeem for the food.

Maria Alvarez, co-director of Shalimar, said in past years the center has

only been able to help a small number of people.

“This is wonderful,” she said of CM900’s help. “We can help a lot of

families.”

Many mothers told Alvarez they were thankful for the food as their

children played and clutched milk cartons.

“This year my brother is sick and we weren’t going to have a very good

holiday,” Maribel Lara said in Spanish. “I’m very happy now.”

Gordon Bowley of Rainbow Magnetics coordinated much of the day. He said

Shalimar was chosen to receive the help after his wife, Carol, who

volunteers there, told him about the neighborhood’s needs.

“This was our first shot at doing this and we’ll probably be doing this

every year,” Bowley said.

After everything was distributed, the men, exhausted from lugging around

50-pound boxes, found the energy to take a moment to relax and smile.

As he left, Grant said unenthusiastically, “Back to the world of

meetings.”