FOR A GOOD CAUSE -- Alma de la Torre

-- Story by Danette Goulet; photo by Don Leach

For 14 years, Alma de la Torre has ladled soup into bowls for hundreds

of folks who were down on their luck.

That has been her task at the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen since it

opened in June 1986.

Some volunteers serve salad, others desert. But serving minestrone and

chicken noodle has been Torre’s specialty.

She has ladled at three or four different locations over the years,

and into an ever-increasing number of bowls.

“We used to be in a church and the Rea Center -- a couple of different

churches -- but it just grows and grows and grows,” she said. “Used to be

50 to 100 people come in. Now it’s 300 a day.”

Wherever the soup kitchen went as it expanded over the years, a

dedicated Torre would follow to volunteer her services.

Four hours a day, twice a week, she and her fellow volunteers would

set up meals, serve lines of less-fortunate souls and clean up behind

them. For each day of the week, there’s a different crew of volunteers in

the soup kitchen.

“We keep the place clean and nice here,” she said. “It’s like a family

to me.”

A retired bookbinder from New York, Torre moved to Costa Mesa 16 years

ago to be near her family in Huntington Beach.

Torre was looking for something to do with her time when her son, who

works at Vanguard University, introduced her to soup kitchen founder and

director Merle Hatleberg.

Torre has served soup ever since -- at first, two days a week and now

one, she said, as she approaches her 80th birthday in December.

Despite cutting back from eight to four hours a week, Torre enjoys her

volunteer work more than ever.

“I love to be here,” Torre said. “You meet all kinds of people, not

just homeless. Some are lawyers and doctors, but because of the drugs or

alcohol, they had to come here. And there are so many friendly people.”