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Nelda Clinton was very gregarious and enjoyed being
and talking with customers. Her husband, Clifford,
however, “found it difficult to converse with patrons. ‘He
was really a shy person, very timid,’ said Donald about his
father. ‘Uncomfortable with small talk, uncomfortable with
dinner parties, uncomfortable if he wasn’t surrounded with
people he knew well,’ agreed Jean.
The next long and colorful section tells of Clifford
Clinton’s work to clean up Los Angeles’s politics. He was
deeply involved in the 1938 recall of Mayor Frank Shaw
and the election of Fletcher Bowron. “Los Angeles in the
thirties had become a haven for East Coast mobsters
running gambling, bookmaking, and bootlegging
operations.” Clinton’s clientele despised such activities. A
grand jury committee (which the DA’s tried to thwart) on
which he was very active released their highly publicized
findings in June 1937. Clinton proclaimed “evidence of
1,800 bookies, 342 houses of miscellaneous gambling, 603
houses of prostitution, and 23,000 pinball and slot
machines” in Los Angeles County.
“‘The pressure really got to him,’ said Donald. He
suffered from ulcers and other stomach problems. In 1947
he traveled to the East Coast for an operation. The doctor
removed two-thirds of his stomach and said he would never
be well again. Yet he beat the odds. For the next ten years
he traveled on behalf of the Meals for Millions Foundation.
However in 1947 he retired from operation of the cafeterias,
“delegating management to his assistant, Ransom Callicott,
who owned one-quarter of the business, and to his three
children...” Clifford Clinton died of a heart attack at age 69.
“He was buried at Forest Lawn.”
Photos show: (1) A large, superb, panoramic overhead
view of the inside of Clifton’s Pacific Seas Cafeteria (ca.
1940). (2) The outside front of the same cafeteria. (3)
Clifford Clinton seated at a desk (ca. 1947). (4) Many pots
on the stove at one of the cafeterias,
A sidebar is titled “Legends never die (and Clifton’s
never closes).” The 3-story Brookdale Cafeteria on
Broadway near Seventh street can seat as many as 835
patrons. It has a staff of 170 employees and serves 4,500 to
6,500 meals a day. Big holidays, such as Mother’s Day,
Easter, and Christmas are all big days. Address: Los
Angeles.
307. Sterner, Mark H. 1984. More on work with Meals for
Millions Foundation, 1966-1973 (Interview). Conducted by
William Shurtleff of Soyfoods Center, March 13. 2 p. typed
transcript.
• Summary: A major change in Meals for Millions took
place on 14 Sept. 1964 when Florence Rose was replaced
by Jerry Miller as executive director. In about 1965 the new
officers at MFM began to lay plans for a new building.
Clifford Clinton provided moral support from the wings.
Funds for the Santa Monica building came from Morris
MEALS FOR MILLIONS, SOY, AND FREEDOM FROM HUNGER 136
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Asimow, PhD (who was president of MFM at the time) and
Jerry Miller; they co-signed a note with a Santa Monica
bank, which was later converted to a mortgage. The
mortgage was paid off over the years by contributions to
MFM during Sterner’s period there. There were no land
grants. Construction started in 1965 and MFM moved into
the new building in April 1966. They wanted a building of
their own located outside of Los Angeles where they could
have a pilot plant and offices.
In India, the original MPF-type food was developed at
Mysore based on peanut meal and Bengal gram. It was later
manufactured by Gopi Agarwal and his brothers in J.B.
Protein Food Industries. They had a peanut pressing
operation in northeast India. They started making it in about
1965 and called it Multi-Purpose Food; it did not contain
soy. MFM, instead of sending MPF from the United States,
sent money to India to help pay for distribution.
Bob Nave and SPRA of the Methodist Mission,
sometime after that, put in a soy extrusion operation. At a
later date, just before Mark left MFM, there was an effort
with Nave to produce second generation foods. Nave’s
mission had received MPF from the USA then bought it
from the Agarwals. Then Nave got an extruder and started
to make a similar product. So MPF sparked Nave’s interest;
eventually he went into second generation foods. Also,
someone in the south of India made a little MPF using
peanut meal, but no soy. Lots of peanuts were available, but
aflatoxins were a problem.
MFM was more involved in image building than in
truth; it was a big problem in the early days. Everyone
wanted to embellish the story to help raise funds. For
example, the early newsletters said that one meal of MPF
cost only 3 cents. No! That was the cost to manufacture it in
Los Angeles, not the cost when it arrived for a hungry
person in Europe.
Adine Laugh was a promotion person, employed by
MFM to promote the organization. When Mark arrived he
worked a lot to bring truth back into the picture. Clifford
Clinton was a very dedicated man, but there were several
years in about 1963-64 when he was alienated from MFM.
He got involved with a chiropractic doctor or healer [Dr.
Omar Fareed] who sort of mesmerized him. That doctor was
flamboyant and lived in Beverly Hills. He threatened to take
over MFM but the board would not allow it. Clinton
resigned, but soon returned. After Clifford Clinton died, his
wife and son were on the board.
The original MPF was based on uncooked soy grits, but
early on it became available in both soy flour and soy grit
form. This lasted until the 1970s, whereafter it was based
entirely on toasted soy grits. Note: General Mills, Inc. began
to make Multi-Purpose Food in Dec. 1959; it was based on
toasted soy grits.
Mark visited the United Rescue Mission (URM) in
Taiwan; they helped care for refugees from mainland China.