Kitchen pays off mortgage

Alicia Robinson

With Southern California real estate prices, owning your own space is

becoming harder and harder, but Merle Hatleberg has finally done it.

The 82-year-old founder of Someone Cares Soup Kitchen was able to

pay off the mortgage on her West 19th Street building in full, and

two years early, with a donation from one of her biggest fans.

“I don’t think I’ve come off my plateau yet,” Hatleberg said

Wednesday.

The 19-year-old soup kitchen has been in its current location

since 1996.

At the organization’s annual fundraiser Saturday, Hatleberg

received a $45,000 check from Ed Eaton, who has his own success

story. After coming to California in 1986 with empty pockets, Eaton

started 123 Loan, a mortgage lending business that now has 300

employees nationwide. Once he made his fortune, Eaton and his wife,

Holly, started the philanthropic Eaton Family Foundation.

“We want to make our own backyard a better place,” said Eaton, who

lives in Newport Beach.

The foundation paid the remaining $42,000 or so on the soup

kitchen’s mortgage. Hatleberg hopes to put the rest of the money

toward expanding a tutoring program for children that now takes place

at the soup kitchen.

Eaton recently donated 25 computers to the tutoring program and

plans to help Hatleberg realize her dream of a separate facility so

the program can serve at least double the 45 children who use it now.

“Until she could bring completion to paying the building off,

she’s not in a position that she could expand the school,” Eaton

said.

The community has been largely supportive of Hatleberg’s efforts,

she said, because she tries to be a good neighbor by making sure soup

kitchen guests eat and then leave instead of loitering in the

neighborhood.

It’s been popular, serving about 300 people a day. An August 2004

survey of soup kitchen visitors showed 76% of those responding live

in Costa Mesa.

“They serve nutritious food. You can get seconds if you want,”

said Joseph Smith, a Costa Mesa resident who was eating lunch at the

soup kitchen Wednesday. “It’s nice.”

Although the soup kitchen has had its critics over the years,

Hatleberg said she just invites them to come see what she’s doing.

“I try to make them a believer that, yes, it is needed,” she said.

“Every city needs a place to help the unfortunate.”