Soup kitchen thanks volunteers

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- A local soup kitchen honored its volunteers and donors

Wednesday night, and some volunteers threw the honor right back.

“The food is always delicious here,” said Dore Wilson, who ate prime rib,

mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. “It’s not like they say ‘this is

for the homeless, it doesn’t matter if it tastes good.’ ”

Wilson is someone who would know.

She and her husband, Kurt -- along with their children Kory, 18; Kody,

13; and Karrin, 9 -- are all homeless. But she still manages to volunteer

at Someone Cares soup kitchen several hours each week.

“I’m proud to say I’m part of the people who work here,” she said.

Her eldest son, Kory, also volunteered until he began working last month,

removing insulation from homes.

“We wouldn’t be able to keep this place open without all the volunteers,”

said the usually jeans-wearing George Neureuther, manager of the soup

kitchen who was that night dressed in a black suit.

He said approximately 85 volunteers serve food, clean tables and wash

dishes at Someone Cares each year. The kitchen serves about 250 meals to

hungry Newport-Mesa residents every day.

Dennis Bustam and his wife, Rhonda, were among the approximately 150

people honored at the soup kitchen, which was decorated for the party

with small floral arrangements and red-and-white balloons.

Bustam, president of Sun Meat Company, Inc. in Placentia, regularly

donates surplus meat to the kitchen. He, his wife and three daughters

have served food at several of the kitchen’s Thanksgiving dinners.

“We like to see where it’s all going,” Bustam said.

The Wilson clan, which took up a whole round table, gazed around the

decorated room.

“People think soup kitchens are degrading,” Kurt Wilson said. “But this

place isn’t. Everyone who works here is like family.”