Seeking Solutions : There are thousands of individuals and groups working against hunger in Southern California. Here are three approaches that stand out. : A Simple Idea Bears Fruit for the Poor

It was a simple idea, born of one man’s disgust over wasted food: Take tons of still edible fruits and vegetables destined for choking landfills and give them to the poor instead.

Retired produce wholesaler Mickey Weiss got the idea after he passed by a homeless encampment on the way to the docks of his vegetable company at the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market in 1987. When he saw 200 pallets of still edible strawberries waiting for the dump truck, he exploded. “Why are we throwing away berries when eight blocks away people are frying stale bread over open fires for their first meal of the day?” Weiss asked.

Weiss, who had been in retirement for six years, got managers of the produce market--the nation’s busiest--to dedicate 2,000 square feet at the end of a dock for the project. He recruited high school students to call Los Angeles charities and ask, “Do you want produce for the poor?” The charity dock was born.

The fledgling operation handed out 60,000 pounds its first month; it now directs 26 million pounds a year--about 44,000 meals a day--to 400 charities. Weiss kicked in $40,000 annually for the first two years of operation. Since 1989, World Opportunities International, a Hollywood-based charity, has operated the dock, which receives no government funds.

In the first program of its kind nationwide, Weiss and two USC medical school professors, Susan Evans and Peter Clarke, have crisscrossed the country, using Los Angeles as a model to launch charity docks in 15 other cities. Their next targets: 30 more U.S. cities, as well as Australia, Canada and Mexico.

At dawn, nonprofit groups begin to arrive at the Los Angeles facility. A procession of rickety trucks and vans pulls up to the gray concrete dock, up to 50 a day. Each one hauls away up to 2,000 pounds of produce and donated bread. “There is nothing wrong with this,” Weiss says, waving a wilted bunch of cilantro. “But it is nutritious food many people have never seen before.”

“This helps,” said Oscar Hernandez, backing a church van up to the dock. Hernandez, a volunteer with Sendero de la Cruz church, says that 500 people arrive at his charity for food each week, up from 100 five years ago. “Without this, people wouldn’t eat,” he says, heaving boxes of squash, bell peppers and cherry tomatoes into his truck.

CHARITY DOCK

* HOW IT WORKS: Charities pick up food weekly, usually about 2,000 pounds each.

* WHAT IT COSTS: Unlike many food banks, which charge nominal fees for food, charity dock food is free. Recipients must be nonprofit organizations. The charity dock is open five days a week.

* HOW MANY BENEFIT: 400 charities receive food. Thirty more are on a waiting list.

* TO GET INFORMATION: Call World Opportunities International, (213) 466-7187