Hunger Program Still Looking for Location in Valley

In July of last year, Love Is Feeding Everyone, the organization founded by performers Dennis Weaver, Valerie Harper and others to fight hunger, unveiled plans to begin serving needy people in the San Fernando Valley around Thanksgiving, 1985.

The program, which has two bases that distribute food collected from supermarkets in other parts of Los Angeles, was to be based in Pacoima, because that was perceived to be the poverty center of the Valley.

However, 10 months after the initial announcement, LIFE still is not operating in the Valley and its plans no longer focus on Pacoima because its researchers found a situation they did not expect.

“We were surprised,” said Sandy Mullins, LIFE executive director. “We found that hungry people live in all parts of the Valley, including the most affluent communities. They’re even in Encino and Sherman Oaks.”

The start of operations has been postponed by their changed perception of the Valley and by their desire to find a large, centrally located building they can use at little or no expense, Mullins said.

Van Nuys Site First

LIFE’s plans now call for one center, preferably in Van Nuys, as soon as possible, and at least two others later.

Preliminary estimates of the number whose incomes fall below the poverty level in the Valley, Burbank and Glendale--which are included in the Valley program--were too low by almost 100,000, Mullins said. LIFE researchers found about 188,000 people living below the poverty level, instead of the 89,000 they expected, she said.

Based on the U. S. Census, calculations by The Times and an independent research firm placed the number of those in households making less than $7,500 a year in the range of 120,000 to 130,000. LIFE’s larger total is based on a poverty level of $10,000 a year.

“People are surprised at the numbers because you can’t really see the poor,” Mullins said. “They’re invisible.”

Using 1980 Census figures, Tom Goodkind, a Panorama City businessman and chairman of LIFE’s San Fernando Valley research committee, concluded that, of about 340,000 households in a 470-square-mile area from Westlake Village to Glendale, 47,000 have incomes under $10,000 a year.

Calculations Explained

The 188,000 figure was based on the assumption that each household consists of four people, he said.

Those on incomes below the poverty level include welfare recipients, the elderly, illegal aliens, single-parent families and other families “where the wage earner is at the minimum wage level and there is just not enough money to last the month,” Goodkind said. The homeless, transients and population growth were not taken into account, Goodkind said.

Statistics compiled by Times researchers using 1980 Census data showed that there were about 393,000 households in the area with an average family size of 2.62 persons. Of these, 51,000 households--with 133,620 individuals--had incomes of $7,500 or less. There were 78,000 families, with 204,360 individuals, with incomes from $7,500 to $15,000.

Some communities with affluent images have sizable numbers of impoverished households, according to the census figures, including 85 in Calabasas, 580 in Encino, 1,185 in Woodland Hills and 495 in Westlake Village, including the surrounding unincorporated area.

6,630 in Van Nuys District

The largest number of poor households, 6,630, was counted in the Van Nuys district, which included Sherman Oaks and Panorama City.

Census figures updated to 1985 by a private research firm, Max Area Evaluation System, estimated that there were 121,125 persons in the 470-square-mile area from Westlake Village to Glendale living in households with incomes under $7,500.

Goodkind also surveyed 27 agencies providing emergency food to the needy in the area. It is through these agencies that LIFE distributes edible food discarded by supermarkets--day-old bread, jars of fruit juice without labels, broken cookies, damaged canned goods, cereal or other foods in damaged boxes, slightly wilted produce, and unspoiled dairy products and eggs with expired marketing dates.

Most agencies are situated in San Fernando, Pacoima, Van Nuys, Canoga Park and North Hollywood, he said. But, he said, Glendale and Chatsworth have only one donor agency each, whereas Reseda and Panorama City have none.

Resources Bank in Vernon

He said most of those surveyed now get food from the Community Food Resources Bank in Vernon, which many complained is too far away and has a limited food selection, mainly government surplus cheese and butter. “We’d like to be able to get peanut butter and jelly once in a while,” one woman told Goodkind.

Goodkind’s committee concluded that the job of helping feed 47,000 hungry families, “spread out over as large a geographical area as the San Fernando Valley, is of monumental proportions.” Goodkind’s report said the first center probably should be in the Panorama City-Arleta area, the second in the Burbank-Glendale area and the third in Canoga Park-Reseda.

Meanwhile, LIFE volunteers recruited from Rotary clubs, chambers of commerce and other civic organizations have held food drives in the Valley. LIFE’s celebrity members have appeared at fund-raising events. The Panorama City Rotary Club has donated one van and is working on raising money to buy a second one.

‘We Have No Building’

“I wanted very badly to have this program going by June,” Mullins said. “We have committees. We have volunteers. We have stores already donating food. But we have no building. Everything else is in place.”

The problem, Mullins said, is the organization’s list of requirements--a one-story building of at least 5,000 square feet and a minimum three-year lease at little or no cost.

“We’d prefer to have a building donated,” Mullins said. “Ideally, it would be city-owned.”

For several months, Mullins said, volunteers have driven throughout the Valley, Burbank and Glendale searching for an appropriate building. LIFE enlisted the help of the San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors, the Valley Interfaith Council, chambers of commerce, the PTA, and politicians such as City Councilman Howard Finn.

Finn and Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) are trying to find an empty government building for the group.

In the fall of 1983, the city gave LIFE 50,000 square feet in an abandoned firehouse in Lincoln Heights to use as its first distribution center. Last July, a second center was opened in South Central Los Angeles. The building, an old furniture store with about 75,000 square feet, was donated to LIFE by local businesses.

In Great Western Building

Overall operations are directed by Mullins from a large office donated to LIFE by Great Western Savings on Fairfax Avenue near Wilshire Boulevard.

The organization started out feeding 100 to 150 families in East Los Angeles. Now LIFE distributes about 150,000 pounds of food to almost 6,000 families a month, Mullins said, estimating that, since its inception, LIFE has distributed more than 1 million pounds of food.

LIFE vans pick up food daily from 23 supermarkets and 11 produce outlets. Then, the food is boxed at distribution centers and picked up by community groups and churches for distribution.

LIFE also gets food from drives held at supermarkets and businesses, bakeries that have joined the program and the downtown produce market.

About 500 of LIFE’s more than 800 volunteer workers are Valley residents who helped the organization get started at its two existing locations, she said.

Expenses are met by organizing fund-raising events such as autograph parties and movie premieres featuring LIFE’s celebrity members.

Celebrities Speak

Weaver and Harper appear at benefits and food drives, speak before civic organizations and testify to government committees.

An essential ingredient in the decision to launch LIFE was that much food was being wasted. A 1977 report by the federal General Accounting Office estimated that 20% of all food--137 million tons annually--is lost in food harvesting, processing and distribution. In 1983, the California Grocers Journal, in urging supermarkets to join food banks, calculated that the average grocery throws away $34,320 worth of food a year.

“Every store has some waste,” said Esther Crammer, vice president of community relations for Alpha Beta Stores. “Stores cannot sell every item before some products become outdated, freshness is lost or the pull dates expire.”

Also, Crammer said, mislabeled goods, dented cans, broken cases and overstocked items are thrown away.

Except for a paid staff of 10--three drivers, two persons at each center and three in the administrative office--all services including office skills, printing, legal help, public relations and accounting are donated. Mullins said it costs the organization about $52 a month to feed a family of four.

Go to Markets Daily

Weaver said that LIFE volunteers go to supermarkets daily to collect food. Agencies that receive the food are asked to pay 11 cents a pound to help cover LIFE’s operating expenses, he said.

But payments from participating agencies amount to only a small part of LIFE’s distribution and administration costs, Mullins said, since it cost LIFE 18 cents a pound to distribute food during 1985.

“Not all agencies can afford to pay but we deliver the food to them anyway,” Mullins said. “So, the amount we got from agencies was about 7 cents a pound,”

Because of a greater volume of food, it cost 14 cents a pound to distribute 150,000 pounds in January and 161,000 pounds in February, on which the organization collected 9 cents a pound, she said.

The money collected for food deliveries is combined with proceeds from celebrity fund-raisers and donations to pay for distribution and transportation expenses.

$500,000 Annual Budget

The projected budget for 1986, including expansion of the existing Los Angeles facilities, the opening of the San Fernando Valley center, distribution and administrative costs, is $500,000. In the Valley, Mullins said, food distribution will cost $66,000 a month. The operations budget will be $125,000.

The number of people LIFE now feeds is but the tip of the iceberg, Mullins said, because, according to a 1983 United Way study, there are an estimated 1.3 million needy in the greater Los Angeles area. The Southern California Interfaith Hunger Coalition estimated that there are 1.5 million hungry people in and around Los Angeles.

“We’re going to have to expand to other communities surrounding Los Angeles,” she said. “I imagine we’ll go into West Los Angeles next.”

Eventually, Mullins said, LIFE hopes to establish programs throughout the nation, using the experience gained in the Los Angeles area as a guide.

“When you look at our nation, you’ll see the Valley is more representative of America,” she said, because of the range of social classes in one area. “You have upper-middle class and middle-class people mixed in with the poor. That’s the way it is in, say, Iowa.”

The knowledge obtained from organizing the LIFE distribution centers is “golden,” she said. “The Valley program is going to be a model for the whole country.”