{"id":140854,"date":"2026-01-20T02:09:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/140854\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T02:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:09:41","slug":"hundreds-of-volunteers-honor-kings-legacy-by-helping-oc-food-bank-mission-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/140854\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of volunteers honor King\u2019s legacy by helping OC food bank mission \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNot a day off, but a day on.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the approach for Martin Luther King Jr. Day<\/a> at the Orange County Food Bank<\/a> in Garden Grove, where more than 900 volunteers packed hundreds of boxes of canned goods that will go out to seniors across Orange County on Monday, Jan. 19.<\/p>\n

\"Lonneshia<\/p>\n

Lonneshia Burrell and Makenna Roberson, from left, laugh while packing food during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. Volunteers packed boxes of shelf-stable food. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Workers<\/p>\n

Workers move boxes of shelf-stable food during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. Volunteers packed boxes of shelf-stable food. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers<\/p>\n

Volunteers pack boxes of shelf-stable food during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Moss, past president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity speaks before the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. Volunteers packed boxes of shelf-stable food. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers<\/p>\n

Volunteers pack boxes of shelf-stable food during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Roman<\/p>\n

Roman Castellucci from Eastbluff Elementary School plays in a Captain Nutrition cutout before the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. Volunteers packed boxes of shelf-stable food. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Leah<\/p>\n

Leah Rose Robinson, right, passes a juice to Rali Westmorland during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. Volunteers packed boxes of shelf-stable food.
\nThe two were with Jack and Jill of America. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers<\/p>\n

Volunteers pack boxes of shelf-stable food during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers<\/p>\n

Volunteers pack boxes of shelf-stable food during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/p>\n

Maya Maldonado hands canned goods to her mom Adeli during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. Volunteers packed boxes of shelf-stable food. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Five-year-old<\/p>\n

Five-year-old Hunter Yee helps load food boxes during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. Hunter was volunteering with his parents Ken and Lilly Yee. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 11<\/p>\n

Lonneshia Burrell and Makenna Roberson, from left, laugh while packing food during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service at the OC Food Bank in Garden Grove, CA on Monday, January 19, 2026. Volunteers packed boxes of shelf-stable food. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

The annual event honors the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and reflects the holiday\u2019s status as the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service.<\/p>\n

About 250 churches, shelters, soup kitchens, family resource centers and other community organizations rely on the food bank to distribute supplies to residents, said Orange County Food Bank Director Mark Lowry.<\/p>\n

The two largest groups served are seniors on fixed incomes and the working poor, he said. A smaller portion of recipients are homeless, and many live with disabilities.<\/p>\n

About 250 volunteers were scheduled in each shift, cycling in throughout the day. Working in assembly lines across several rows, volunteers filled food boxes, making up part of the roughly 25,000 boxes distributed to Orange County seniors each month.<\/p>\n

Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua, who volunteered with her husband, said she wanted to help the community and highlighted the food bank\u2019s partnership with her city. About 80,000 Santa Ana residents rely on food assistance, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been volunteering here at the OC Food Bank since I was 12,\u201d Garden Grove City Councilmember Ariana Arestegui said. \u201cThis has been a wonderful tradition for the last several years, coming here with Key Club and now as a council member, and seeing so many other members of the community continue the tradition. It really feels like a full-circle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNot a day off, but a day on.\u201d That was the approach for Martin Luther King Jr. Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,179,23,611,136],"class_list":["post-140854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-community","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}