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Easter celebration on Skid Row attracts thousands of homeless
Ambrosio Hernandez, right, has been off the streets for two years, but lives nearby and likes to come visit with people who are homeless: "I don't forget where I'm from."
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Josie Huang/KPCC
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Sam Kabuom enjoys an Easter meal of ham and mashed potatoes at Midnight Mission. He's been coming for three years, because the food is good, and the "workers are good, too."
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Josie Huang/KPCC
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A volunteer brings ham and sides to the hundreds of homeless people dining at a time.
A live band playing classic rock entertained about 3,000 people at the Midnight Mission Easter/Passover meal.
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Josie Huang/KPCC
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After Easter brunch, some diners danced to the live band.
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Josie Huang/KPCC
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Easter celebration on Skid Row attracts thousands of homeless
In the months he’s been homeless, James Moody has avoided eating meals at shelters because he’s adamant about feeding himself.
But he made an exception for the Midnight Mission’s annual Easter/Passover celebration on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.
“It looked like a pretty good meal,” said Moody, working on a plate of ham, green beans and Hawaiian bread. “I appreciate it, and I hope everybody else appreciates it as well.”
An estimated 3,000 people attended the brunch, held outside the non-profit’s building on 6th Street, as a band rocked the stage with Rolling Stones covers and an Easter bunny visited tables.
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In terms of turnout, “we’re up a little bit this year,” said Larry Adamson, president and CEO of Midnight Mission.
Adamson said since the recession, the number of homeless people in Los Angeles has risen to about 58,000, many of them concentrated downtown.
“This last year we served over a million meals out of this facility alone,” Adamson said. “This is the second year in the row that we’ve exceeded that one million mark.”
Midnight Mission provides three meals a day to about 3,000 people. Its other major charge is providing drug rehabilitation.
Ambrosio Hernandez said he was homeless for 10 years and used to rely heavily on the non-profit's services. But he is now in drug recovery and has found housing. Yet, he decided to come for the meal and sit among new faces at one of the tables.
"I don't forget where I was from," Hernandez said.
Some diners noticed a difference with this year's brunch. Dishes, according to the mission, were made from scratch.
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Abraham Webb, who moved to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina, said he could tell the food was high-quality.
"It's got flavor, real food flavor," Webb said. "I'm from Louisiana, so I've got good taste."
Serving the meals to the homeless diners were about 250 volunteers from companies such as Disney and Bank of America.
Karen Hansen, who works in human resources at Boeing, volunteered with her son. She had never been to Skid Row.
"It's kind of scary during the day, but you know, we're all people, we're all humans and they need help like everybody else, right?" Hansen said.
Missing from the meal was one of Midnight Mission's best-known volunteers. Actor Dick Van Dyke, an honorary board member and constant presence at the organization's holiday meals, could not come this year because he wasn’t feeling well, Adamson said.
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