Seeking Solutions : There are thousands of individuals and groups working against hunger in Southern California. Here are three approaches that stand out. : Products of Sharing: Food and Good Works
The principle is simple: Get people to pool their resources and buy food in bulk, and you’ll help those with limited resources purchase more food for their money. Require participants in the purchasing pool to do some volunteer work for the food, and you improve the community they live in too.
The Self-Help and Resource Exchange, or SHARE, which was launched in 1983 in San Diego and now has branches in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala, distributes close to a quarter of a million food packages each month to 30,000 families. SHARE, which has expanded to 600 pickup sites in 40 California counties, is working to increase participation in Southern California.
Participants pay $14 at the beginning of the month, put in two hours of volunteer work in their community, then pick up a bag filled with 30 pounds of nutritious foods, valued at $30 to $35, at the end of the month. Each bag includes six to 10 pounds of meat, four to seven kinds of fresh vegetables, two to four types of fresh fruits and staples such as rice or pasta and a few specialty items.
People do such work as cleaning up graffiti or helping out at the Red Cross, Little League or schools to meet the volunteer requirement. They can even do good deeds for neighbors--baby-sitting, tutoring children, mowing lawns--as long as they get a receipt.
SHARE participation, which is open to anyone, places no limit on the number of bags of food a person can buy, as long as they do two hours of community service for each one.
“We buy in large quantities,” said Patricia French, a SHARE regional manager in the group’s Colton office in San Bernardino County, which opened two years ago. Southern California has 23,000 participants, 4,000 of whom are in Los Angeles County. Volunteers help distribute the food, picking up orders in Colton. In Los Angeles County , food is distributed at 25 sites, mostly churches and volunteer centers, such as the Calvary Community Church in Norwalk or the La Mirada Volunteer Center. The group, which will offer a vegetarian package next year, plans to open a warehouse in Los Angeles County.
Marion Standish, co-director of the nonprofit group California Food Policy Advocates, believes that SHARE has been highly effective at helping the working poor, a growing number of whom have been seeking food assistance in recent years. The truly destitute, she says, find it harder to surrender part of their cash at the beginning of the month with the promise of food several weeks later. “You need to be able to gather up some money at the beginning of the month,” she says.
THE ‘SHARE’ PROGRAM
* COST: $14 a month, plus two hours of volunteer community work, for a package of food valued at $30 to $35.
* TO GET INFORMATION: SHARE headquarters in San Diego, (619) 525-2210. For Los Angeles, Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, call the SHARE regional warehouse at (909) 783-8896.