Event Marks MEND’s 25th Anniversary

Meet Each Need with Dignity will mark its 25th anniversary Sunday with a “Serv-a-Thon.” The event by the Pacoima-based charitable organization will bring together area merchants and professionals to offer, among other things, shoes, medical and dental screenings, haircuts and packaged food.

Tours of MEND’s newly expanded building, the result of a $1-million fund-raising campaign, will also be given. “We have doubled our space to 20,000 square feet,” said executive director Marianne Haver Hill.

When the organization moved to its current site in the early 1980s, Hill said, “we were only servicing 2,000 people [a year]. But since then we have grown and are now servicing 10,000 people.”

In the beginning, recipients were sometimes forced to wait outside in long food-bank or clothing lines and, Hill said, “we didn’t feel we were offering them much dignity.”

Carrie Jones, one of the organizers, said Sunday’s event will include a street fair. Van Nuys Boulevard will be closed between Kewen and Telfair avenues, making way for food and craft booths, face painting and other children’s activities and information booths set up by local social service agencies.

During the year, MEND offers a variety of services, including food and clothing, English as a Second Language and computer classes, field trips for children, furniture distribution and, on a limited basis, medical and dental evaluations. To qualify, individuals must provide proof of income and residency in the northeast Valley.

The Serv-a-Thon will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 13460 Van Nuys Blvd.

For more information, call (818) 897-2443.