PANTRY THAT FEEDS FAMILIES DOWN TO ITS LAST LOAVES.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - Alesia Telles juggled two sacks of groceries from the Loaves & Fishes pantry, enough to help feed her seven children.

``They always have good things, things you can use,'' said Telles, 36, of Valley Village, whose load included canned peaches, beef stew and bread. ``It's a place to go when you don't have food or clothes; it's all in one. I'm very grateful.''

Despite a sharp increase in local hunger, Loaves & Fishes could close this month for lack of funds, leaving thousands without a source of free food, clothes, toys and job tips.

Founded 17 years ago with the blessing of a local bishop, the Catholic Charities pantry now serves up to 7,500 poor families and 500 homeless residents each year.

``It's sad,'' said Barbara Ausburn, volunteer director of Loaves & Fishes, who for 17 years has driven three times a week from Westlake Village to the pantry located in a busy industrial section of Van Nuys.

``I'm going to do whatever I can to keep it open. ... It's our purpose in life.''

The decision to close the all-volunteer pantry was announced in a letter by Monsignor Gregory A. Cox, executive director of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, which runs four such pantries in the San Fernando Valley.

News of the impending closing coincided with a report this month from a University of California, Los Angeles, study that found a 16 percent increase in Valley residents who verge on hunger. The numbers have reached 166,000.

While Loaves & Fishes plays a critical role in serving the poor and vulnerable, Cox said, the church can no longer run it in the red. Government and private grants have diminished along with business support that once helped fund the pantry. Loaves & Fishes has lost money for five straight years.

``There was a time when the other programs of the San Fernando region could cover the deficit,'' Cox wrote in a letter to concerned donors on June 7, National Hunger Awareness Day. ``But with cutbacks in funding, the region can no longer carry the center.''

Cox told pantry officials he would close Loaves & Fishes at the end of June without more support from the surrounding community. Pantry officials say Catholic Charities has asked that private donors foot the bill for half its $50,000 operating budget.

Unlike Loaves & Fishes pantries in Glendale, Canoga Park and San Fernando that operate out of community centers owned by Catholic Charities, the Van Nuys agency must pay $26,000 a year in rent.

Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, which offers a broad range of services to 250,000 poor residents, listed $75 million in assets in 2003, according to tax records, and last year received nearly $700,000 in federal emergency food funds. The agency is a financially independent social-service branch of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Cox praised Ausburn, her volunteers and the army of high school students who have powered the Van Nuys pantry. But because of red ink throughout the Valley region, he said Catholic Charities should have closed the pantry last year.

``This just kills us, because you see the need wherever you go,'' Cox said. ``We need more of these places. There's so much poverty that exists in our back yards. But we can't help them all by ourselves.

``There is not enough local support. ... The community has got to take ownership.''

Opened in 1988, the Loaves & Fishes of Van Nuys has grown to serve as many as 1,500 residents a month at 14640 Keswick St.

Up to 30 volunteers a week - from high school students to senior citizens - sort the clothes, stack surplus groceries and bag foodstuffs for the poor, and they hand out 1,000 toys each Christmas.

There are volunteers like Ausburn, 61, who at the end of a long marriage decided there was ``more to life than playing golf.''

And Kris Ryan, 15, a student at Montclair Prep who decided he'd rather help the homeless than ``sit on my butt at home and watch TV.''

And Vern Olson, 83, of Tarzana, a World War II airman who rides the bus each week to hand out food, despite his own health problems related to a stroke.

``I'm ready for 'em,'' said Olson, poised to hand groceries to stay-at- home moms. ``We're a big help to 'em. I enjoy it.

``I'm just praying to God they don't do this - shut us down.''

Also praying are needy residents, including many who take the bus to Loaves & Fishes.

``I came for my kids,'' said Ranae Broeske, 43, of Valley Village, a mother of three on her first visit to the Loaves & Fishes lobby. Her crucifix is inscribed with the message ``Jesus loves you.''

``I want to make sure my kids have what they need. Sometimes feeding a family of three kids is hard.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

TO HELP

To make a donation or for more information about Loaves & Fishes, call Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, [phone].

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Photo:

Kris Ryan, 15, a student volunteer, carries a bag of groceries to a woman at a Van Nuys food pantry in danger of closing.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

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