Los Angeles, CA – Super King Markets are hungry to help this holiday season. The Southern California grocery store chain has teamed up with Union Station Homeless Services to collect food for those in need. The market will be hosting food drives in all six of its stores from November 18 until the end of the year.
“I am excited about this opportunity to help our communities,” said Daniel Barth, General Manager of Super King Markets. “Super King is in the food business. The opportunity to support a great organization like Union Station Homeless Services that focuses on feeding people is a natural partnership for us.
“On the very first day,” continued Barth, “one of our customers donated $80 worth of food. I feel proud that we are engaging our shoppers to help others in such an impactful and intentional way.”
The food collected will be used to prepare holiday meals at Union Station’s “Dinners-in-the-Park,” a holiday feast which feeds more than 7,000 people. In addition to donating food collected, Super King is also a sponsor of the annual event, which is held on Thanksgiving and Christmas in Pasadena’s Central Park each year.
“This amazing community event would not be possible without the support of sponsors like Super King, as well hundreds of volunteers who help us serve food on Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said Dana Bean, Director of Development for Union Station.
For Super King shoppers and other friends of the community that want to support Union Station Homeless Services and the Dinners-in-the-Park holiday food drive, here is a list of the most needed items:
Item Needed
Exact Size Needed
Canned Green Beans
6 lbs. 5 oz. (#10 Can)
Mushroom Soup
26 oz. or larger
Cranberry Sauce
6 lbs. 5 oz. (#10 can)
Canned Corn
6 lbs. 5 oz. (#10 can)
Instant Mashed Potatoes
26 oz. or larger
Italian Salad Dressing
16 oz.
Pumpkin Pie
Any Size
Full Size Deep Aluminum Steam Pans with Lids
20.75” x 12.8” x 3.2”
Ground Coffee
Any Size
Items can be dropped of Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4.30pm at 412 S. Raymond Ave. The community is also invited to make a donation at www.unionstationhs.org.
ABOUT UNION STATION HOMELESS SERVICES
Union Station Homeless Services, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is committed to helping homeless men, women and children rebuild their lives. Union Station Homeless Services is part of a premier group of human services agencies in Los Angeles County that are leading the way to ending homelessness in our community. We are the San Gabriel Valley’s largest social service agency assisting homeless and very low-income adults and families. We believe every person deserves a life of dignity and a safe place to call home. With 41 years of experience, we proudly offer a full continuum of eight programs in seven locations; services include street outreach, intake/assessment, care coordination and navigation, meals, shelter, housing, employment development, benefits enrollment, and referrals to medical and mental health services
The holiday season is a time for family togetherness, for giving gifts and sharing good food around the table with loved ones. But for those who are ill or far away from home – or cannot afford life’s basics let alone Christmas presents or a Christmas dinner – the holidays can be the most depressing time of the year. That’s where Pasquale Vericella, Margo Kidushirn, Rosalind Grushkin and Terri Lattanzio – and volunteers like them – come in. Real life Santas bring joy to people in our community who might otherwise feel sad and forgotten during the holidays. And giving to others makes their own holiday experience that much greater.
Inspired Heart Pasquale Vericella, whose restaurant has been dubbed one of the city’s most romantic spots for a wedding, makes helping the homeless a family effort. Every year on Thanksgiving he and his wife Pattie and their three children bring turkeys that were roasted in Il Cielo’s ovens to the Good Shepherd Center for homeless women and children in downtown Los Angeles. Then they roll up their sleeves and serve the residents Thanksgiving lunch with all the trimmings. This year Aida Thibiant is providing gifts for all the residents. A few days before Christmas they buy and wrap gifts for the residents, and play Santa. “Our reward is seeing the happiness and gratitude on their faces when they realize someone out there cares about them,” he says.
Pasquale explains that in a city where nearly 90,000 people are homeless it’s the homeless women who are worst off. They’re often mugged and raped, and they lose their identity-thus the importance of the Good Shepherd Center. He calls Sister Julia Mary, the center’s founder and director, the “Mother Teresa of Los Angeles.” He was so moved by her compassion and dedication when he met her nearly 20 years ago, in fact, that he named one of his daughters after her. “Sister Julia Mary has devoted her life to helping homeless women and though she just turned 90 she’s still a dynamo,” he says.
Pasquale serves on the board of directors of Good Shepherd Center, which offers residents medical help and counseling, not just food and a roof over their heads. Thanks to his and other supporters’ efforts, in January the center is opening a school to teach residents life and computer skills and train them for jobs. Also in their new building, there is a bakery where residents can bake a variety of delicious goods and sell them to the surrounding Belmont community. “It’s very life-affirming for a person to experience making something with your hands that’s nourishing,” he says.
A Big Family
Stroll over to Central Park on the corner of Fair Oaks and Del Mar in Pasadena on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day and you may be amazed to see thousands of people enjoying a feast at long tables spanning the lawn. Is it a gigantic family reunion? In a way it is-if you count a community coming together to celebrate the holidays as a “family.”
Union Station Foundation, the San Gabriel Valley’s largest private agency serving the poor and homeless, has been putting on free “Thanksgiving Dinner-in – the- Park” and “Christmas Dinner-in-the-Park” events for more than 30 years. Over 1500 volunteers help on Thanksgiving when they serve over 5000 meals, and around 700 volunteers serve 3500 meals on Christmas. That includes setting up the day before and cleaning up the day after. Volunteers who donate, cook or serve food, or work one of three shifts a day include teenagers, seniors, Boomers and entire families.
Margo Kidushim and her husband and children got involved six years ago, after Margo started volunteer cooking one day a week at the foundation’s homeless shelter. “I was so impressed by the dedication of everyone involved I couldn’t stay away,” says Margo, who’s now a member of the Union Station Foundation board. “We celebrate Hanukkah with my husband’s family, but on Christmas Day you’ll find us at ‘Christmas Dinner-in-the-Park.'”
One of the most popular spots at the afternoon event is “Santa’s Village,” a station where a Santa Claus greets children and volunteers hand out over 3000 donated new gifts, from stuffed animals and dolls to sporting equipment. Margo loves to see the expressions on the kids’ faces when they get their presents, but it’s the overall experience of the day that sticks with her. “The camaraderie of all these people from different walks of life coming together to do something good for others,” she says. “What better way to embrace the whole idea of what the holidays are about?”
What does Union Station Foundation do the rest of the year? Its Family Center provides emergency shelter for an average of 60 families per year; its Adult Center provides emergency shelter for 150 adults per year; its Euclid Villa provides transitional housing for fourteen homeless families at a time, from which all moved on to permanent housing last year.
Union Station Foundation also operates SOURCES, a career development and job placement program, and provides medical and mental health services for 1500 homeless adults and children a year. On top of all that, Union Station Foundation serves breakfast and lunch to ah average of 150 homeless people a day.
