Panel Is Formed to Find Food Line Site in Orange

The Orange City Council has formed an ad hoc committee to assist in finding a new site for Mary McAnena’s five-day-a-week food line, previously in W.O. Hart Park.

The council voted in July to force groups of 25 or more people to apply for permits to use city parks as well as limit each group’s use of the park to once a week, effectively forcing McAnena to cease feeding people in the park.

Mayor Gene Beyer said the committee is studying the feasibility of other sites for McAnena, who has been providing the free meals for seven years.

All the potential sites are in industrial areas of the city, Beyer said, and not near any residential property.

The eight committee members are Mayor Gene Beyer; Mayor Pro Tem Fred L. Barrera; Lorna DeShane, a resident of the W.O. Hart Park area; Jay Urban, also a resident of the park area; Beverly Nestande, an Orange resident and community activist; Al Ravera, who assists McAnena with the food program; Dan Wooldridge, a former aide to Supervisor Don R. Roth and Orange resident, and Scott Mathers, who works with the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Orange.