The Crowd:

It was the fashion show spectacle of the fall social season. The 15th annual Harvesters event in support of the Second Harvest Food Bank attracted nearly 500 guests, raising $700,000 to feed those in need in this ultra-rich county, where an estimated 450,000 individuals are without proper sustenance every month. Despite the obvious contrasts and contradictions between a glamorous fashion-show luncheon and a food line for the poor and disenfranchised, the money is one powerful piece of change.

Did you know that the food bank is a network operation that connects with some 400 local charities that distribute, prepare and provide meals to the nearly half-million recipients? In addition, there are another 30 organizations called Kids Cafes in the O.C. that cater to children’s specific dietary needs. Volunteers and paid staff work on shoe-string budgets.

The funds are even more important because the food bank is also supporting a capital campaign to raise $6 million to rebuild a donated headquarters building on the former El Toro Marine Base. Major donors among the Newport Beach based Harvesters include Vicki Booth,representing her parents’ Uebberoth Family Foundation; George and Eden O’Connell, Colt and Jackie Melby, Dianne and Charles Cotton, Julia and Mark Post, and Miland and Heidi Ambe.

Also supporting the cause are David and Shannon Beador, Michael and Nancy Bello, Norm and Cindy Morales, Bucky and Annette Oltmans, and chair of the fashion luncheon Robin McMonigle and her husband, John. Large dollars were contributed thanks to the gallant efforts of auction chairs Jennifer Condas and Susan Pack. More than $180,000 was raised from the massive auction efforts, emceed by Hal Brice. Also deserving kudos for considerable effort is Harvesters’ underwriting chair Melinda Serra, who, with corporate donors Cartier, Fendi, Versace, and South Coast Plaza made an important addition.

The real behind-the-scenes champion of the massive effort is South Coast Plaza. The fashion production, the focal point of the party, is surely a yearlong undertaking by SCP executives Debra Gunn Downing and Kathryn Glassmyer.