Making A Difference in Your Community : Group Helps Feed Hungry in the Valley

Rummaging through the large industrial garbage bins next to the truck delivery entrance at the Ralphs market on Laurel Canyon near Ventura Boulevard, the two women seemed oblivious to the stares of passersby and the supermarket employee sitting on the loading dock.

On the ground near them lay several heads of lettuce and a few assorted vegetables, the trophies from their search.

Down and out in Studio City. Not a scene from a movie, but rather a real-life survival act played out in a high-rent part of Los Angeles, where pockets of poverty seem invisible and home prices now average $225,000.

“Hunger and homelessness in the Valley started getting bad during the 1980s, but our economic problems and the disappearance of so many social service programs has made the situation much worse now,” says Margery Gossard, the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry’s volunteer secretary for Records and Statistics.

“The number of homeless has really shot up,” she adds. “We’re also serving a lot of working poor.”

Gossard defines the working poor as people who can’t afford to pay rent and buy food at the same time.

She says the pantry serves a large numbers of veterans, seniors and the disabled, and also feeds a tremendous number of children.

“Historically, half the people we serve have been children,” she says. In April, the most recent period for which statistics are available, Gossard says that translates into half the 5,345 people served. “We have so many families, of all races and creeds, living out of their cars in little pockets near the parks in North Hollywood, Studio City and Sun Valley, it just breaks your heart to see it.”

A retired college music instructor, Gossard began working at the pantry 11 years ago because she wanted to stay active in retirement. At times, she says, the work’s been emotionally draining, but she’s stuck with it because of the spiritual returns.

“We’re just a drop in the bucket, and they need so much more help that sometimes it all seems hopeless. However,” she says, “I’ve met so many wonderful and committed people from different religions, it’s all been worth it.”

The pantry was started in March, 1983, by five women from different Christian and Jewish congregations. Organized under the sponsorship of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council as a non-sectarian, nonprofit volunteer agency, the pantry has so far fed 585,165 people. Today, those five contributing religious congregations have grown to eight area Protestant churches, one reform Jewish temple and one conservative synagogue.

The pantry’s distribution site, open Mondays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., consists of two small Sunday school rooms provided by the First Christian Church at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Moorpark Street, North Hollywood. Food storage space is donated by Temple Beth Hillel, also in North Hollywood.

Although donations of food and money come from individuals, congregations, private and public groups, and such supermarket chains as Lucky, which donates several tons of bakery goods per month, most food comes from the L. A. Regional Food Bank.

Additionally, says Kathryn Tate, the pantry’s volunteer director, the group also provides approximately 20 bags of food per week to the Necessities of Life program, a food project of AIDS Project L.A. To volunteer time or donate food or money, call (818) 980-1657.

Walden Environment-Foster Family Agency is looking for volunteers to help with a June 25 picnic for 150 abused and neglected children. The summer picnic is scheduled 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at El Cariso Park in Sylmar. Volunteers are needed. Contact Tanya at (818) 365-3665.

West Hills Regional Medical Center needs adult volunteers on weekdays to assist visitors and patients in various areas of the hospital. Training, jackets and lunch is provided. Please call the volunteer office at (818) 712-4169.

Getting Involved is a weekly listing of volunteering opportunities. Please address prospective listings to Getting Involved, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.