On Tuesday, volunteers from Saddleback Church and Ralphs will be in a Lake Forest parking lot, packing Thanksgiving meals to be given to 475 students who have successfully completed an anti-gang program.
The OC GRIP program, run by the district attorney's office, Sheriff's Department and other local agencies, is intended to improve at-risk students' school attendance, behavior and grades.
The fourth- through eighth-grade students can pick up their Thanksgiving meals, each of which will feed a family of 10, at their schools starting Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.
The dinners were donated through Saddleback Church and Ralphs as part of the county Gang Reduction Intervention Partnership. About 600 students, from 23 OC GRIP schools in eight cities, were eligible for the program; 475 successfully completed it.
“We have many selfless volunteers at Saddleback," said Rick Warren, pastor at Saddleback Church.
