Hands Across America Distributes $1.2 Million in State

Hands Across America on Thursday gave grants ranging from $2,000 to $172,000 to 51 California charities that aid the homeless and hungry.

With the announcement of the $1.2 million in California grants, about $9 million of the $15 million that organizers say the Memorial Day event netted last year has now been distributed.

The remainder of the money, raised from donations when an estimated 5.5 million people were asked to contribute at least $10 each to stand in the Hands Across America line, will be distributed by May 25, the first anniversary of the event.

At a press conference Thursday, rock singer Kenny Loggins joined Hands Across America’s creator, television producer Ken Kragen, in passing a five-foot-long ceremonial check for $1,254,025 to Mayor Tom Bradley. Later, real checks were passed out to directors of several shelters, food banks and relief agencies for the destitute, including 14 Los Angeles-area organizations that received grants totaling $245,780.

Nothing Returned

None of the recipients were from the San Fernando Valley, prompting questions about how organization officials determined grant recipients. Asked how an estimated 25,000 Valley residents could have participated in the Hands Across America event and have no money returned to Valley relief organizations in the form of grants, Kragen said:

“I think we had $6 million in requests . . . so that around one-sixth of the requests got funded. So it isn’t just one organization in the Valley. There are many out there. You’ll find many who were not funded here. The intent was to do the best job possible to deliver funds where they would have the longest-term impact and do the greatest good.”

Kragen and the executive director of his USA for Africa Foundation, Martin Rogol, described an elaborate grant-proposal review system involving recommendations and conferences of more than 700 relief organizations in California.

Critics, such as the National Coalition for the Homeless, have complained that the system has proven slow and cumbersome at a time when funding for America’s homeless is desperately needed. But Kragen defended the process, which has taken 11 months and has involved several thousand relief officials in all 50 states. Ultimately, he said, the consensus process has proven to be democratic, efficient and equitable, if slow.

In the five-county Southern California area, the largest grant, $100,000, went to the Food Partnership in Los Angeles.

Other Recipients

Other five-county-area grant recipients named Thursday by Hands Across America officials include: Sts. Peter and Paul Poverty Program, Wilmington, $10,000; Pasadena Coalition Against Homelessness and Hunger, $6,250; Shelter Partnership, Los Angeles, $21,000; Para Los Ninos, Los Angeles, $5,030; Inner City Law Center, Los Angeles, $10,000; Pomona Valley Council of Churches, Pomona, $7,000; Los Angeles Homeless Health Care Project, Los Angeles, $25,000; South Central Food Distributors, Compton, $10,000; Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled, Anaheim, $4,500; Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force, Irvine, $25,000; Food Share, Oxnard, $5,000; La Sierra Collegiate SDA Church, Riverside, $7,000, and Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., Saticoy, $10,000.

Kragen said USA for Africa has planned no new events comparable to Hands Across America, but the nonprofit foundation will be active in the 1988 elections.

“We are beginning meetings with all candidates to make sure that every candidate, regardless of party, makes it a priority in their campaign to eliminate hunger and homelessness in this country,” Kragen said.

The Los Angeles Social Services Commission has scheduled a public hearing Monday on Hands Across America, USA for Africa and several other so-called “pop charities” to spotlight the issue of slow funds distribution.