BRIGADE BRIGHTENS LIVES WITH DAY-OLD DELIGHTS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

``The payoff comes when someone throws their arms around you, and says what a good guy you are.''

- Joe Rose, a member of the Bagel Brigade.

It's 11 p.m., last call at Krispy Kreme.

Joe Rose pulls his car up outside the hottest doughnut shop in the Valley, and begins loading dozens of donated boxes of the store's day-old, unsold doughnuts into the back seat of his car.

Twenty minutes later, he's pulling into the driveway of his Van Nuys home a few blocks away, ready to catch a couple of hours' sleep before getting up at 3 a.m. to head over to some local supermarkets that want to get rid of their day-old bakery items by 4 a.m. so they can make room for the fresh stuff.

Then 75-year-old Joe Rose heads over to 80-year-old Herman Berman's place in Sherman Oaks, and hooks up with other senior volunteers who also have been making the early rounds of bakeries, supermarkets and doughnut shops, collecting donated day-old bakery items.

By 6 a.m., the Bagel Brigade scatters throughout the Valley, distributing thousands of bagels, loaves of bread and doughnuts to more than 65 locations.

To schools in low-income areas for parents to take home, to senior citizen complexes, church pantries, mental health centers and special education schools.

Anywhere bakery items like this are considered a treat. Even a luxury.

Like over at Lowman Elementary School in North Hollywood where the special education students come from some of the most impoverished areas of the city.

``Sometimes, these bagels and breads might be the only thing they have on their table at night, so you could say that Herman and his volunteers make sure every child in this school and others will be eating at night,'' said school Principal Helen Hartel.

Or at the Dubnoff Center, a private, nonprofit special education school, where executive director Sandra Sternig-Babcock smiles Wednesday as she watches student Loribeth Velez throw her arms around Herman when he drops off new clothing the brigade has collected along with bread.

``Herman and his brigade have enriched our school nutrition program by providing us special food products that would otherwise be unattainable to our 100 children,'' Sternig-Babcock said.

``Who Herman is, and what miracles he has made and will accomplish stand as shining examples of what can be achieved by people who care.''

Who Herman is: A grandfather who was wearing his ``Encino Lodge, B'nai B'rith volunteer, Food for the Needy'' badge five years ago when he walked into a local bagel shop to pick up some bagels for his grandkids.

The next thing Herman knew, he was running a nonprofit corporation by accident.

``I didn't work this hard when I was working for a living,'' the retired businessman said, laughing.

The donated bagels this Jewish grandfather collected that day started a brigade that now numbers 60 volunteers from all religions, picking up day-old bakery items from 25 locations in the Valley, and distributing them to more than 65 outlets.

``I had no idea it could ever develop into this,'' Herman said after throwing a surprise award party for Rose, and Bill Holland - a couple of the brigade's veterans and hardest-working volunteers.

``It started as a Jewish organization, but now more than 60 percent of our volunteers are non-Jewish,'' Herman said. ``Joe's a Mormon, and Bill, well, he's a miscellaneous Christian.''

Holland, a retired school principal and Herman's right hand man in the brigade, downplays his role, saying he's not doing anything special making the rounds of the Valley every morning helping fill some empty stomachs.

``It's my way of helping people, and that's what life is supposed to be all about, isn't it - helping the less fortunate?'' he said.

Sure, but it's the payoff that makes you keep getting up every morning at 3, after only three or four hours of sleep, to hit the road again, Rose says.

``When you go to the battered women's home, or the crippled children's home, and someone throws their arms around you, and says what a good guy you are, well, there's no feeling like it,'' Rose said.

If you'd like to see for yourself, Herman's always looking for more volunteers. You can reach him at [phone].

The need is there, and his brigade isn't getting any younger, Herman says. Some fresh blood would sure help.

All you have to do to join is care, he says.

After all, that's what life is supposed to be about, isn't it?

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Photo: Bagel Brigade founder Herman Berman gets a hug from Dubnoff Center student Loribeth Velez after delivering clothing and bread.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer