Job Cuts Bring Hunger Home to the Suburbs : Economy: More families are using food banks, and agencies say things may get worse as severance benefits run out.

Nearly every night, images of starving Somalis fill television sets in the South Bay and other Southern California suburbs as American forces seek to restore order in the war-torn African country.

Ironically, many of the same suburban families watching these images, once part of a comfortable middle class, are more likely this year to be facing their own battle with hunger.

Because of defense industry layoffs, cutbacks in government spending and a state jobless rate that reached 10.1% in November, more suburban families here are seeking help from their local food agencies.

“I keep telling people, hunger isn’t little children with swollen bellies in this country,” said Doris Bloch, executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, one of the biggest suppliers of food to pantries and social service agencies in the region. “It’s people who pay their mortgage and their insurance and just don’t have enough left over to buy food.

“In the suburbs I think it’s really worse, because people don’t think hunger exists there. Every time they close down a big plant, a lot of middle management people lose their jobs.”

By October, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank had distributed more than 30 million pounds of food--4 million pounds more than it distributed last year. Demand is also up at the Food Bank of Southern California in Long Beach, another large food supplier.

To meet the demand, agencies are soliciting more donations or cutting back on the size of individual aid packages to families. Some have created food pantries to serve families in relatively affluent places such as West Los Angeles. And many say they expect the situation to worsen as the severance packages and unemployment benefits start to run out.

“Lord knows what will happen after the first of the year,” said Lori Angeleri, co-director of the meal program at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Redondo Beach. “That’s when I’m hearing a lot of the benefits run out.”

Angeleri and her husband, Bradford, run a program that provides a hot meal for about 150 to 200 people once a week, about 30 to 50 more per week than last year. She said the church’s emergency food pantry also serves about five to 10 more families per week. The demand “took our pantry really down to nothing,” she said. “We’ve had to be really creative in the way we solicit donations.”

Angeleri said church members are soliciting more donors now, mostly through word of mouth. But other food providers have started calling area food banks looking for cheaper supplies of food. Bloch said the demand is so great that her food bank has had to turn some away. She said many of the agencies who have asked to get food from the food bank are in suburbs stretching from the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys down to the South Bay.

“We are running harder and harder just to stay in place,” she said.

Sandy Cima, social services coordinator for the House of Yahweh, a nonprofit charity in Lawndale, said the soup kitchen there now serves five more families each day than last year and gives out about 50 more emergency food packages a day.

“There is a big need in the South Bay, from here in Hawthorne down to Palos Verdes,” she said. “There are homeless and low-income and working-class people that need assistance.”

In this recession, officials say, those people are likely to be families with young children. Hazel White, president of the board of directors of the LAX Food Pantry, said larger families with young children are now also seeking help.

“In 1991 we figured it was 2.9 people per family,” she said. “This year we figure it’s over 3.1. While that may not seem like many, it adds up to a lot.”

The LAX pantry, a nonprofit food provider serving Westchester and neighboring communities, provided emergency food for almost 30,000 people last year. But if current trends continue, that number could reach almost 36,000 this year. “We figure we’re feeding almost 3,000 mouths a month right now,” White said.

In the South Bay, where defense industry layoffs have had an especially hard impact, many are using whatever money they have to hang onto their homes, officials say.

“It’s like a tidal wave we’re trying to hold back,” said David Risher, social services director of the Salvation Army’s Torrance branch. Many of the people coming to the Salvation Army for assistance are from the middle class, he said, and a large number of these are former aerospace workers.

“A lot of them pay exceedingly high rents here,” he said. “Unemployment barely pays for it, so they come to us.” He said his agency is helping up to 300 more people a week than last year with food and rental assistance.

The heavy demand is occurring as food supplies are shrinking. The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank buys surplus food at a large discount from suppliers and passes on that discount to agencies and food pantries that buy from the food bank. In recessionary times, suppliers--supermarket chains and food wholesalers--tend to keep tighter inventories, leaving less of a surplus to sell, Bloch said.

At the Food Bank of Southern California, president John Knapp said individual suppliers have decreased the amount of food they provide, but the food bank has managed to meet the additional demand by adding more suppliers.

The only good news is that total donations are up this year, at least during the holiday season, according to officials.

“When times get tough there’s no one more generous than an American,” said House of Yahweh’s executive director, Sister Michele Morris. She said the House of Yahweh now solicits more supermarkets for food.

In West Los Angeles, the Assembly of God Church started its small food program this year to help about a dozen families a month. William Sullivan, the church’s pastor, said the 120-member church is hard-pressed to assist even that many families but felt the need to do something.

“We had so many knocks on the door from people needing help, especially people with little children,” Sullivan said. “We’ve given everything away. We don’t have a special fund for helping people like this, because we’re a small church.”

Although the riots created a big temporary demand for additional food this year, the recession may keep food demand high for some time. With the economic outlook for the state still grim, Bloch doesn’t see relief coming soon. Still, she said, the food bank will continue to look for both money and food, even after the holidays are over and donations taper off.

“There are still all those people who need to get food,” she said. “You have to be an optimist to be a food banker.”

Where You Can Donate Food

The following is a partial list of South Bay organizations accepting donations of food. Some also accept grocery store gift certificates, cash, clothes, toys, disposable diapers and toiletry items. All of the agencies advise calling before dropping off a donation. All Culture Friendship Center Refugee Immigration Service, 4754 W. 120th St., Hawthorne, (310) 675-0391, seeks grocery certificates so immigrants can find own types of foods. Beacon Light Mission, 525 Broad Ave., Wilmington, (310) 830-7063, ask for Gene, Bruce or George, runs kitchen on premises serving the homeless. Catholic Charities, 123 E. 14th St., Long Beach, (310) 591-1351; Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. All foods, warm clothing, socks, blankets. Christian Outreach Appeal, 515 E. 3rd St., Long Beach, (310) 432-1440; Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. All foods. Food Bank of Southern California, 1444 San Francisco Ave., Long Beach, (310) 435-3577; Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. All foods. Services 240 food pantries throughout Los Angeles County. Harbor City Parent-Child Center, 1135 W. 257th St., Harbor City, (310) 530-7082, accepts food, especially baby formula and food, for needy families. Harbor Interfaith Emergency Center, 1420 W. 8th St., San Pedro, (310) 831-0589, accepts non-perishable food such as canned goods, dry beans and rice and powdered milk. House of Yahweh: 4430 W. 147th St., Lawndale, (310) 675-1384; Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. All foods. Long Beach Community Services Development Corp., 2179 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, (310) 437-0681; Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Canned foods, staples, turkeys. Long Beach Rescue Mission, 1335 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, (310) 591-1292; every day, any time, just call first. All foods. Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, 4632 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood, (310) 672-8011; Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All foods. Organization of Normandale Seniors, 21320 Dalton Ave., Torrance, (310) 212-5433, accepts donations for food pantry assisting senior citizens. Rainbow Services Ltd., 567 W. 6th St., San Pedro, (310) 548-5450; Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All foods. St. Margaret Mary, 25511 Eshelman Ave., Lomita, (310) 326-3364; Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. All foods. St. Peter-St. Paul Poverty Program, 943 Lagoon Ave., Wilmington, (310) 834-5431; daily, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. All foods. St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 2600 Nelson Ave., Redondo Beach, (310) 370-4319, Tuesdays after 2 p.m., accepts food for meal program and emergency food packages. Salvation Army, several South Bay locations, accepts food, preferably non-perishable but may accept fresh food, with notice, for needy families: * 11034 Sartori Ave., Torrance, (310) 782-8841 * 4223 Emerald Ave., Torrance (310) 370-4515 * 850 Inglewood Ave., Redondo Beach (310) 214-7999 * 439 S. Grand Ave., San Pedro (310) 832-7228 * 324 E. Queen St., Inglewood (310) 677-3375, (non-perishables only) 1736 Shelter, 103 W. Torrance Blvd., Suite 10, (310) 372-4674, accepts food for shelters for battered women, their children and teen-age runaways. Sisters of Charity of Rolling Hills, 28600 Palos Verdes Drive East, Rolling Hills, (310) 831-4104; daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. All foods. South Bay Senior Services, 1520 Greenwood Ave., Torrance, (310) 328-9765, ask for Dory, accepts canned goods and grocery certificates for homebound senior citizens. Toberman Settlement House, 131 N. Grand Ave., San Pedro, (310) 832-1145; Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (closed 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.). All foods. United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Harbor/Southeast Region, 3515 Linden Ave., Long Beach, (310) 988-2500, accepting food through Dec. 20. Youth and Family Center, 101 N. La Brea Ave., Suite 100, Inglewood, (310) 671-1222, ask for Cecilia Freeman or Gil Nathanson, accepts food baskets and gift certificates for teens and children.