GIFT FOOD IS ANSWER TO PRAYER VALLEY'S NEEDY STREAMING INTO KEY AGENCY FOR POOR.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW

Staff Writer

PACOIMA -- For at least one mother of three, one godsend means the difference between a bare kitchen larder and healthy weekend meals:

It's a 125-pound box of food from Meet Each Need With Dignity.

"It's beautiful. It's beautiful," said Lupe, 57, of Pacoima, who declined to give her last name, among a throng of dozens -- mostly moms -- waiting recently to pick up emergency supplies of food at MEND.

"It's bad enough when you're broke. You want to keep your dignity. This place allows you to keep your dignity. They treat you well."

Demand for food at the San Fernando Valley's largest agency for the poor has soared 40 percent since MEND moved in March into its sparkling new facility.

Since May, giveaways at the Pacoima food pantry have shot up to nearly 900 food boxes a month, compared with 500 to 600 boxes at the food window in MEND's former headquarters.

In addition, demand for clothing has jumped 70 percent.

"I feel a little bit overwhelmed," said Gina Mirabella, MEND's food director. "We just moved in, and the number of people needing food has shot up. It'll only continue to grow, and the demand will be even higher."

High rents, low wages and the rising cost of gas and staples such as corn-based and dairy products have put the squeeze on the region's poor, food pantry officials said.

While MEND officials attributed part of the spike to greater visibility and community access to the new $8.7 million facility on San Fernando Road, others pointed to rising food needs across Los Angeles County.

"Anytime we see gas prices go up, we see more people turn to food pantries," said Darren Hoffman, spokesman for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which helps supply food pantries across the region.

"We never have enough food. We're always rationing food, but we always make sure every agency gets something."

A regional study of food banks last year found a 22.5 percent jump in recipients since 2001, with an estimated 674,000 residents seeking food at pantries, soup kitchens and shelters.

People had to be turned away at nearly one-third of the pantries because of a shortage of donated food, according to the report.

At the MEND food-distribution center, volunteers packed rows of boxes with bags of frozen chicken, canned vegetables, pasta, cupcakes and more.

The bulk of the food came from supermarkets and private food drives, including 115,000 pounds picked up by mail carriers.

Councilman Richard Alarcon, who once drove a food truck for MEND and served as its board president, pledged to raise $25,000 for the food pantry's Stop Summer Hunger campaign.

The new MEND center, a 40,000-square-foot facility dressed in ocean blue, mustard yellow and burnt sienna, is now within walking distance for residents of San Fernando Gardens, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's only housing project in the Valley.

"What people need here is housing, work and health care," said Ed Rose, 70, who co-founded MEND in 1971 after collecting food and furniture for the poor and storing it in his Mission Hills garage. "I think there is always hope."

For those in line for food, it was a tough, gritty kind of hope. For Lupe, struggling to find work to raise three teenage sons, it's all she can do to pay the rent, the gas station and the grocery store.

"Eventually, I think I'm going to have to leave L.A.," she said. "I find that everybody is living from check to check. God forbid, some emergency comes up; you're going to be living in the red."

For parolee Lisa Monroy, it is a struggle to raise a 1-year-old son while her husband, an undocumented day laborer, struggles to find work.

Between work and welfare, she said, the family has $700 a month. Of that, $300 goes toward rent to live in a garage.

The parents have to choose between bus fare or diapers for their son, Angelo. And they can't afford the cost of a green card for her husband, Angel.

"It's scary," said Monroy, 37, of Lake View Terrace, hoping for a box of food, a package of Pampers and some sandals for her toddler. "It's been a rough life, but this is it. It's going to change -- it has to."

Hector Ramirez, a painter by trade, had an apartment, a Camaro and a wife and two kids before his drinking cost him everything.

Now homeless and newly sober, he sleeps in a nook at a nearby church. During a recent phone call to his kids, ages 4 and 6, he said it's never too late to start over.

"I tell them Daddy's going to be a new person, a good daddy; that I'm going to take them to Magic Mountain. Daddy's going to get a car, take them camping, go to the mountains," said Ramirez, 44, of Pacoima, waiting for his handout and a hot meal from MEND.

"They believe me. They say, 'I believe you, Daddy. I know you're a strong man. You're gonna make it."'

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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Information

To contact MEND, call [phone]

or go to www.mendpoverty.org or lafoodbank.org.

CAPTION(S):

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Box:

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Map:

MEND (Meet Each Need with Dignity