Northeast Valley Needy Find a Friend in MEND

From its modest beginnings three decades ago in a two-car garage in Mission Hills to its present two-story office building on Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima, Meet Each Need With Dignity, a nonprofit social service agency, has comforted the northeast San Fernando Valley’s homeless and poor.

Since its founding in 1971, the volunteer organization has distributed food, clothing and furniture to hundreds of thousands of single parents, immigrant families, unemployed workers and others who populate one of the city’s poorest corners.

“The agency’s mission is to provide services that meet the basic human needs of people in the northeast Valley, and to do it with dignity,” Executive Director Marianne Haver Hill said. “That philosophy infuses everything we do.”

As the agency marks its 30th anniversary Saturday with a dinner and silent auction at Skirball Cultural Center, the organization faces perhaps its greatest challenge in trying to meet residents’ growing needs on a shoestring budget.

Chronic unemployment, poor language skills and limited access to health care have prompted MEND to expand its core services to include job training, computer literacy, English as a second language classes, and medical and dental clinics.

Like the underprivileged people it serves, MEND has learned to get the most out of every dollar, spending all but 4% of its $5-million annual budget on programs.

To keep administrative costs down, the agency relies on 1,200 volunteers who sort clothes, pack food baskets, deliver furniture, plan events, raise funds, fill cavities and write prescriptions.

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The volunteers, along with 14 paid staff members, served 296,000 clients in 1999-2000, according to the agency’s latest figures. That total included 255,426 food basket recipients, 15,528 clothing recipients, and 2,396 dental and medical patients.

“When you look at the array of services they provide on such a small budget, you wonder how they can be doing so much with so little funding,” said Karen Escalante-Dalton, program officer with the California Endowment, a nonprofit organization that makes grants to health-care providers serving low-income patients.

“They are able to do all the work they are doing by primarily engaging highly committed volunteers,” she added. “It is not the only organization with such a low overhead, but it is one of the few that I have encountered.”

Over the years, MEND has won the support of political power brokers, corporate executives, charitable organizations and leaders of major religions.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), Mayor Richard Riordan, Kaiser Permanente and the Los Angeles Archdiocese are all longtime boosters, agency officials said. They all will be honored at the agency’s $125-a-plate affair Saturday.

“MEND has built up such a good name for itself that when we go to foundations for funding we already have a foot in the door,” said agency founder Ed Rose, who launched the organization in his Mission Hills garage by collecting goods for the poor.

Rose, who considered the priesthood but instead opted to have a family, said helping others is as natural to him as breathing.

“It bothers me to see people suffering,” he said, “and I wanted to do something about it.”

Although MEND has friends in high places, its roots lie in the low-income community it serves.

On a recent morning, families jammed a waiting room at the agency’s food distribution area. Mothers with children in tow perused stacks of pants, shirts, blouses, dresses and shoes in the clothing center. Students in the food service program planned lunch menus. And patients read magazines as they waited to see the dentist.

It’s not unusual to see residents handing off bags of clothes and food to volunteers in the agency’s parking lot. Other donations come from businesses, foundations or professional services.

“There are people who want to overcome their problems, and they come to MEND to get help so they can continue their lives,” said Erika Ibanez, 20, of San Fernando, whose family sought the agency’s help after falling on hard times.

Nearly 10 years ago, Ibanez’s father, Juan, suffered a back injury on a construction job that prevented him from working for two years, she said.

Desperate to keep food on the table and a roof overhead, Ibanez’s mother, Maria Elena, made and sold crocheted decorative items while Erika and younger siblings Juan Carlos and Marisol redeemed aluminum cans, she said.

Unable to afford the rent on their apartment, the family lived in a series of garages, one-bedroom apartments and with relatives. Meanwhile, Maria Elena gave birth to another girl, Yesenia.

Eventually, they turned to MEND for food, clothing, dental and medical assistance, she said. Juan Ibanez recuperated and found work as a welder and mechanic. Today, the Ibanez family owns a home in San Fernando.

“It feels good knowing that you have overcome,” said Erika Ibanez, who coordinates MEND’s ESL program. “I came back to say thank you for what they did.”

Priscilla Arsenian, 56, a retired telephone company clerk, packed food baskets every Christmas for 11 years before moving to Scottsdale, Ariz., last July.

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Even though she moved out of state, Arsenian said she found it difficult to leave MEND behind. So, last Christmas she was back at the agency packing baskets for needy families.

“MEND is like a family to me,” she said in a recent telephone interview. “The staff people are so dedicated to their jobs, and they certainly aren’t getting paid what they could be getting elsewhere.

“They make volunteers feel like they are making a contribution,” she added. “I felt like the time I was giving was worthwhile.”

A corps of committed volunteers is the engine that makes MEND run, said Richard Marias, president of MEND’s board of directors and a volunteer dentist.

“We are constantly looking for vibrant volunteers who are willing to give of their time,” he said. “Everybody can do something--whether it is helping in a school, church or social service organization--the need is there.”

Marias said he is inspired by current and former MEND clients who volunteer at the agency.

“They can’t write a check, but they volunteer their time,” he said. “They feel they have an obligation to help those who don’t have the things that they do. That is a true inspiration for me.”

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For more information about MEND, call (818) 894-3361 or 896-0246.