Food Gifts Pour In for Hungry Schoolchildren

It was simple fare at Edgewood Middle School’s first free breakfast Wednesday morning: a bowl of Cheerios, a carton of milk and another carton of orange juice.

The breakfast was organized by West Covina residents after the problem of hunger among children at the school, detailed in a Times story Sunday, sparked a nationwide outpouring of generosity. Edgewood was cited as an example of the thousands of schools nationwide that have not taken advantage of a longstanding, federally funded breakfast program for low-income students, filling classrooms with hungry children who cannot focus on learning.

Since Sunday, Edgewood has turned into an emotional meeting ground between the haves and the have-nots in the community.

Scores of people, concerned about hungry children at the school, hauled in canned foods and frozen turkeys, a bounty of birds that overwhelmed Assistant Principal Amelia Esposito’s office. Others--many of whom said they were facing a bare-bones Thanksgiving--came in to take a donated turkey home.

Pasadena lawyer Jeannette E. Valdivia and her family drove to the school, delivering 10 boxes of groceries. Her 3-year-old son, Jackson, handed one of the boxes filled with bread and peanut butter to Lisa Drynan’s 3-year-old boy, Kevin. Drynan sometimes does not have enough money to feed her boys three meals a day.

Valdivia stood in the assistant principal’s office after the exchange, crying, and hugging Drynan.

“My grandparents were very poor and didn’t have enough to eat,” Valdivia said. “Now I have enough to give some.” The card in the box read simply: “Happy Thanksgiving!”

None of West Covina Unified School District’s 11 schools offer a federally funded breakfast to their low-income students. The district board’s president contends that the program is anti-family. But Wednesday, nearly 170 Edgewood children ate a privately provided meal before school began. Shoveling spoonfuls of cereal into his mouth, Frankie, 11, said there is never enough food at home to eat breakfast.

“Last night, we didn’t have any food or any money. I went to sleep and tried to forget about it,” said the boy, who arrived early in anticipation of the meal. Another boy asked his teacher if he could come today for breakfast, even though it is a holiday.

“This is a very proud moment,” said Edgewood Principal Cathy Makin, watching as each child walked up to the school’s cafeteria window and walked away clasping a cereal box.

Makin said the school had received more than 300 calls from citizens--many of them crying--offering donations. “The community heard about a problem, and moved to do something about it,” she said.

People in other states had heard, too, calling in pledges of money and food. “Every time I look up I see someone else bringing in food,” Makin said.

The school has received more than $1,800 in hand-delivered donations. More is expected to arrive by mail next week, donations that the school hopes to use to keep the breakfast program going.

Ultimately, school officials hope that the district’s school board will vote Dec. 13 to apply for federal funds to create a permanent breakfast program in all of the district’s schools.

One hundred turkeys have been donated to the school. A woman from Arcadia brought 32 baskets of food in memory of her son and grandson, who were recently killed in an accident, saying it was her way of celebrating the holidays without them. Another woman brought in an eight-pound brisket of meat. There were donations of cases of tuna fish and corn. A man from Norwalk handed Makin an envelope containing $1,500 in food gift certificates.

At midmorning, an elderly woman who lives next to the Vons store in West Covina telephoned. She had been able to haul home enough food by hand to make up six food baskets, but she didn’t drive. Could someone pick up the donation? A school secretary was dispatched.

“Look at what people brought us,” health clerk Deborah Paschal said, beaming as she opened the cabinet at the school nurse’s station, now packed with graham crackers and granola bars.

Volunteers worked the school phones, calling to offer food to families that principals in the district had suggested might be needy. One woman, whose daughter attends Edgewood, had arrived in a wheelchair. “God bless you! God bless you! We weren’t going to have Thanksgiving,” she told the school’s receptionist.

Barbara Lawrence, 41, who said two of her seven children attend Edgewood, was thankful for the food, which included donated rice, pasta and cans of vegetables. She had used her turkey money to move out of a gang-infested area last month. “It’s great,” she said as Assistant Principal Amelia Esposito slipped a turkey into a plastic bag for her.

Cradling a donated turkey in her arms, Nelly Gomez, 34, whose husband’s $600-a-month pizza delivery job supports them and two children, said she has trouble putting three solid meals on the table. “Breakfast here at school would be a big help. Especially for parents who work but don’t make much,” said Gomez, whose family spends about $450 a month to rent a house with two other families. She had planned to serve her children a piece of chicken for Thanksgiving dinner.

Lisa Drynan, one of the Edgewood parents profiled in the Times story, said more than 100 people had tracked her down, offering to help her with food, rent, even toys for the holidays. One woman drove from Orange County, filling her cupboards with food.

“You think it’s such an ugly world out there. But people have responded in an amazing way,” she said. “I’ve said God bless you and thank you hundreds of times. I don’t know what else to say.”

By the cafeteria, two 12-year-olds, Steven and Ivan, ate breakfast at green picnic tables.

“My family has problems. There’s not that much money. We just get lunch. And dinner. There is no breakfast,” Steven said.

Ivan scraped the bottom of his cereal bowl. “This is good. Now, I don’t have to think about food in class,” he said.

Then, as the morning bell rang, the boys moved to their classroom to begin the first lesson of the day.

How to Help

If you would like to give money or volunteer help, here are some suggestions:

THE REGION

* Southern California Interfaith Hunger Coalition: (213) 913-7333 Ext. 10

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

* The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank: (213) 234-3030

* The Foodbank of Southern California: (310) 435-3577

* Love Is Feeding Everyone: (213) 936-0895

RIVERSIDE, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTIES

* Survive Food Bank: (909) 359-4757

VENTURA COUNTY

* Food Share Inc.: (805) 647-3944

ORANGE COUNTY

* Food Distribution Center: (714) 771-1343

* Orange County Community Development Council: (714) 897-6670

IN NEED OF HELP

* If you are a hungry person in need of help, call the Southern California Interfaith Hunger Coalition’s hot line at (800) 328-6476.

Hunger Series Reprints

* Reprints of the Times four-part series “The Hunger Wars” will be available soon by mail. Call Times on Demand, 808-8463, press *8630, select option 3 and order item 5510. $4.50

Details on Times electronic services and instructions for ordering by mail, A12.