Every Wednesday evening, a community meal is held at the offices of the United 1st Methodist Church in Redondo Beach. Located on the corner of Broadway and Torrance Boulevard, (just up from the Redondo Beach Pie), the church provides a fully operational kitchen and food storage facilities that are used by many volunteers, including several RSVP members, to help prepare a weekly meal for those less fortunate than the rest of us.

I was greeted by RSVP member and project facilitator, Carol Johnson, as the evening meal was being prepared. RSVP member, Norma Nelson was hard at work with Judy getting things ready in the kitchen. Carol told me that food for this repast comes from many sources, including fresh fruit and vegetables from the Torrance Farmers Market and other produce from Bristol Farms. You may also be familiar with the Canned Food Drive that is held by the U.S. Postal Service and I am told that that Drive provides much of this type of food for the program.

A wide range of people take advantage of the free meals that are prepared by these volunteers, with attendees coming from as far away as Long Beach, San Pedro and Hawthorne. This is the eleventh year that the program has been in operation and participants range from the younger members of families on Welfare to older folks in regular need of a good meal as well as Vietnam Vets who have fallen on hard times.

Other items are also provided. These include gift packages of basic items of necessity such as toothpaste, shaving cream etc. Items that are also always welcome are warm jackets and blankets, so if you have anything like this collecting dust at home, they would definitely be a welcome addition to the services that this organization provides.

Arriving just before 2:00pm, I noticed that several volunteers were hard at work in the kitchen preparing the food for the coming evening meal that was due to commence around 6:00 o'clock. More helpers started to arrive as I was preparing to leave, including RSVP member Whit Walter and his wife Carol. It was only last month that I met with Wic Walter at Torrance City Hall, where he was in the process of heading up the Tax Helpers task force. I was told that RSVP member Bernie Slotnick is also a regular volunteer at Shared Bread along with his many other volunteer activities. A large number other RSVP members are comitted to this activity and it gives me great pride to know that our organization is so heavily involved in many similar volunteer activities throughout our community.