A Close- Up Look At People Who Matter : Dishing Up Relief for the Hungry

In an age where most charities have to struggle for donations of food and money, David Kaye and Marvin Flagg have become masters of efficiency and marketing.

“You have to sell yourself,” said David Kaye, the 70ish chairman of community services for the Encino B’nai B’rith. “That’s how I did business.”

Drawing on their past experience in the food business, Kaye and Flagg distribute food to the hungry on behalf of their organization.

Kaye, a former New York fashion photographer, moved to California 40 years ago and got into the food distribution industry, where he stayed until he retired a few years ago. Using the catch phrase, “Don’t throw it away, call David Kaye,” he still contacts many of the same food manufacturers and suppliers as he did during his career.

Flagg also is a retired New York transplant who learned the grocery business from his father and went on to work in major supermarkets.

The pair work out of a 6,000-square-foot warehouse in Chatsworth that is a testament to their resourcefulness. Stacked on pallets, the pair have beef base for soup, concentrate for lemonade, cornflakes, blankets, boxes of food for hungry schoolchildren, detergent, condiments and salads.

“There’s not a piece of merchandise that we can’t find a place for,” said Flagg, who’s in charge of distribution.

While the group does not accept used clothing--except unmatched socks, which they donate to local churches--there have been some unusual items that have come across their loading dock. Once, they accepted 2,000 buckles for lady’s shoes that sat in the warehouse for 2 1/2 years until Kaye found a group that made bonnets for children who had lost hair from chemotherapy.

The pair also have had deliveries of chicken Kiev, Belgian chocolates and Sara Lee frozen chocolate cakes. The two are able to chisel away most donations from manufacturers by finding odd lots, foods close to their expiration date or that are damaged or imperfect by factory standards.

Somewhere in the warehouse is what remains of about 50,000 pounds of soap bars picked up from a local Lever soap factory just before it closed.

“I would never want to stop doing it,” said Flagg. “There are many people who need what I do and what Dave does.”

The food distribution program grew out of an annual Encino B’nai B’rith lodge effort to give out food boxes to the elderly for Passover and Hanukkah. About 14 years ago, Kaye and Flagg happened into some extra donations and broadened their effort.

“We never even thought anything would come of it,” said Kaye. They started working out of a small garage, and a couple of other storage sites before finding the current warehouse three years ago. “We just wanted to help a few people.”

Because of Kaye and Flagg, last year the organization distributed 9,000 blankets, as well as 3 million pounds of food, soap and other items. They distribute to more than 40 groups serving the homeless, battered women, abused children, AIDS patients and other needy persons.

“There’s thousands of organizations out there that aren’t even aware of us,” Kaye said. “We’d like to do more . . . But there’s only so much you can do.”

Flagg spends about five hours at the warehouse every morning, then goes home to make phone calls, line up volunteers, arrange for trucks to make deliveries.

Kaye is working harder now than before he retired, he said.

“Now, I’m coming here, spending 3 1/2 hours a day just on the phone, making phone calls all over the country,” Kaye said.

“Some retirement.”

Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please address prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.