‘Extended Family’ Has No Limits

If they weren’t so busy organizing dinner for 1,200 today, Alice and David Medellin probably would be home packing food and clothing for delivery to the needy, as they do every other day of the year.

Because it’s Thanksgiving, the Granada Hills couple are heading to the Elks Lodge of San Fernando to make sure the turkey and trimmings are properly laid out for their “extended family,” those in the community who would otherwise go hungry.

“There are so many needy people out there, they come to us day and night,” said Alice Medellin, 52, co-founder of the nonprofit Project Living Hope. “If we get a call, my husband and I go out. We won’t let anyone go hungry.”

Added David Medellin, 53, “No matter what the time, we’ll dig into our own pantry if necessary.”

The couple, both Valley natives, have been working side-by-side serving the downtrodden for more than 10 years. In the beginning, the pair offered sack lunches to the homeless in local parks. But as word of the couple’s generosity spread, needy families and individuals showed up at their home seeking food, clothing and encouragement.

By 1990, the Medellins’ garage had been converted into a storage room stuffed with donated clothing and food items. In 1993, Project Living Hope received its nonprofit status, and today the group feeds 500 families a month. The couple still hand out food and clothing from their home, and once a month they run a food bank out of a trailer behind the Amistad Cristiano Church in San Fernando.

“Our kids grew up in a house surrounded by college volunteers, stacks of clothing and food and homeless people,” said Alice Medellin, a recent Fernando Award nominee. “When my kids hit their teens, they’d bring friends home and say, ‘Our house isn’t always like this. It’s just that we’re helping people.”’

Alice Medellin said her desire to help others was a natural extension of her work at the state Employment Development Department, where for 26 years she has helped find work for the most disadvantaged.

Assigned to sex offenders, welfare recipients and adults with limited English, she quickly realized that to get jobs for her clients, she had to first help them get back on their feet and job-ready.

For years, she sent them to shelters and rehabilitation centers, but eventually she found herself offering them clothing, food and interview tips on her own time. Through her efforts, many eventually landed jobs.

“Alice is totally committed to helping the less fortunate,” said Tina Hutchinson, president of the Los Compadres chapter of the International Assn. of Personnel in Employment Security, an educational association for work-force development employees. “She’ll give you the shirt off her back, and her enthusiasm is infectious.”

By 1994, Project Living Hope had grown so large that the Medellins expanded their operation to a trailer, which is paid for by the Living Hope Community Church in San Fernando. They persuaded several organizations, including the Children’s Hunger Fund, B’nai B’rith and Mattel, to donate items to their group.

“Alice always offers to help us out, with deliveries or anything else we need,” said David Kaye, chairman of Encino B’nai B’rith Food Bank.

Bryan McKinney, director of Children’s Hunger Fund, agreed: “Year after year, they demonstrate how they care for others.”

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