Shalimar to add site at soup kitchen

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- An unexpected donation of hundreds of books arrived at

Shalimar Learning Center last week as its board of directors decided to

add a satellite facility at Someone Cares Soup Kitchen.

If the plan is approved by the soup kitchen and the board of Think

Together, which oversees Shalimar and five other learning centers, the

new facility could open in January, said Jewel Loff, Think Together’s

director of development.

Shalimar provides tutoring and academic help for Westside students in

first through 12th grades.

“The need exists,” Loff said. “One thing there is no shortage of in

the program is children at risk.

“We’re just touching the tip of the iceberg because so many kids need

help and the only thing that is going to get them out of this cycle and

this neighborhood is education. We know we want to do it, but we want to

be sure we have funding.”

Loff said working together will make each organization’s efforts more

effective since both serve the same demographic: the working poor.

“While our primary focus is the children, this collaboration will

allow us to be more holistic,” she said.

“You can’t address the needs of the children without addressing the

needs of the parents. And the children have to eat before they can

concentrate on learning.”

Merle Hatleberg, founder and director of the soup kitchen, which

serves about 300 people daily, said she expects the collaboration to

begin soon.

“It looks like its on,” she said, “but there’s a lot of fine-tuning to

be done.”

George Neureuther, the soup kitchen’s development director, said he is

excited about the possibility of working with Shalimar.

“It would give the community and children in Costa Mesa the chance to

improve the level of education while getting meals,” he said. “Education

for children is very important and help is really needed here.”

Laura Johnson, Shalimar’s executive director, said a swell of

community support in the form of increased volunteers and donations has

given the center momentum to look toward expansion and the confidence

that it will be able to find enough help to support a satellite facility.

She said she attributes the new support to publicity surrounding the

low point in the center’s six-year history, when it closed briefly in

September in response to a protest over the firing of longtime staff

member Maria Alvarez.

The donation of about 200 books, which arrived Thursday, is one

example of the dramatically increased support, Johnson said.

The books are the first installment of a donation by two Fashion

Island organizations -- Club Literacy, a reading club, and For Your

Imagination, a learning center.

The organizations will continue to collect books for Shalimar until

Wednesday and will drop off the second installment by Friday, said Tracey

Pringle, a Club Literacy spokeswoman.

“All of our kids are very low readers, so we’re been trying to

motivate them to get into reading,” said Ruth Estrada, Shalimar’s

elementary center director.

“The first priority is to help them with their homework, but improving

their skills is also a priority. Book donations really help because a lot

of these children don’t have books at home.”

Jenny Zetina, a 6-year-old student who spent time reading at Shalimar

last week, said she found a new favorite book.

“I don’t really like to read,” she said, holding a copy of the “Magic

School Bus Inside a Beehive” by Janna Cole and Bruce Degen. “I don’t have

books at home. But this one is my favorite. I’m reading it for the first

time.”