SOUTH-CENTRAL : Food Network Offers Toys, Job Referrals

Children’s hungry eyes peeped through a door, waiting anxiously for some Christmas relief. But it wasn’t food the 400 children were hoping for at the South-Central food and clothing distribution center. It was toys.

The Genesis Food Distribution Foundation passed out nearly 500 toys to about 150 low-income families from its offices at Broadway and 94th Street last week.

“We know how to distribute food. We ought to know how to give away toys,” said Tracy Spratt, executive director of the nonprofit organization, which works with more than 140 nonprofit food and clothing relief groups.

Founded by the Brotherhood Crusade, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and First African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Genesis network was created in response to the 1992 riots.

The network serves about 25,000 families a week in South-Central Los Angeles, providing food, clothing and referral services to job banks and free health clinics.

As the network grows, so does the number of needy people, staff members say.

“We need food not only when there are disasters,” said Faye Newman, assistant director of Genesis. “We need food weekly. There are daily disasters going on in our lives.”

The network obtains its food through partnerships with mom-and-pop grocery stores and from buying in bulk from wholesale food outlets at the lowest prices.

Genesis, which has 10 full-time staff members and seven to 20 volunteers, is funded by a $50,000 yearly federal grant. The Brotherhood Crusade provides a salary for Spratt, and the other nine staff people are paid by the city.

Like the toys, which were donated by the Los Angeles Fire Department, clothing and some food are donated from agencies connected to the network.

Three to four tons of food, transported in donated trucks, are stored at the agency’s warehouse, where it is sorted and prepared for distribution to affiliate groups.

“Because of Genesis, we are serving 108 families every Saturday,” said the Rev. Thomas King of New Vision of Life Baptist Church on South Vermont Avenue.

On the average, most church organizations serve 100 to 150 people a week, with some groups providing food for up to 700 hungry people, Newman said.

“If it wasn’t for Genesis, there would have been a lot of people who would have been left without a Thanksgiving dinner,” said Pastor R.A. McKinley of the New Pilgrim Baptist Church, 8225 S. Main St. With donations mostly from Genesis, New Pilgrim provided dinners to 125 families for Thanksgiving.

When a new organization joins the network, Genesis staffers teach members about free resources that are available--such as health clinics and drug counseling centers--so that they can help their constituents.

“Genesis is trying to empower people who need resources,” said Spratt, who was an administrator at the New Life Outreach Center in Inglewood until she took over at Genesis in June. “I want people in this community to be self-sufficient.”

Driven by that philosophy, Genesis has begun acting as a job referral service, using its chain of organizations to find jobs.

At least 10 people from the New Pilgrim ministry have found employment through Genesis, McKinley said.

What Genesis has done to link social service agencies is something network members say has been needed for a long time--even more so after the riots and the Northridge earthquake.

“If we had more agencies like Genesis,” McKinley said, “Los Angeles would be a much better place.”

Information: (213) 779-6088.