Lending a Helping Hand to 11,000 Poor Families

Sergio and Margarita Mercado and their daughters fled their burning apartment seven years ago with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Struggling financially, the family received emergency food and clothing from the Guadalupe Community Center in Canoga Park.

The center is a past recipient of support from the Holiday Campaign of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund. Serving Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, the agencies helped by the holiday campaign provide a range of services for children, including aid for the mentally and physically disabled and programs to prevent drug abuse and violence.

The Guadalupe Community Center, sitting amid modest apartment buildings on Hart Street, is run by Catholic Charities, which operates 83 nonprofit centers in Southern California.

The center serves an estimated 11,000 underprivileged families in the west San Fernando Valley, Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village through its educational, recreational and social services.

Its two-acre campus--donated in 1947 by philanthropist Mary Logan Orcutt--is undergoing a $1-million renovation.

“Through the years, the focus of our programs has changed to meet the needs of the community,” Executive Director Margaret Pontius said. “We are not imposing our programs on them.”

The center offers free services for neighborhood residents.

For adults, there are English as a second language and civics classes, parent support groups and a senior citizen nutrition program that provides a low-cost, healthful lunch five days a week. Children ages 5 through 17 can participate in art, dance and music classes, as well as sports and recreation programs.

The center’s Loaves and Fishes program provides emergency food and clothing once a month to families that meet federal poverty guidelines. The food pantry helps about 10,000 people a year, Pontius said.

Seven years ago, Margarita Mercado was among those standing in line for a grocery bag filled with rice, beans, pasta, meat and canned goods. She also paid 25 cents to $1 for clothing and household items at the center’s thrift shop.

Today, Mercado, 40, volunteers three hours a day twice a week, in the food pantry and thrift shop. Her daughters take art and dance classes. Sergio Mercado, 44, supports his family as a construction worker.

“We were helped here a lot,” Margarita Mercado said. “I feel that I need to pay something back for what I received.”

The Holiday Campaign was established last year after the Los Angeles Times merged with Tribune Co. It is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, which includes The Times’ long-running Summer Camp Program.

The McCormick Tribune Foundation will match the first $500,000 in donations at 50 cents on the dollar, and The Times will absorb all administrative costs.

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THE TIMES HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN

Tax-deductible donations: Gifts (checks or money orders) should be sent to L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File #56491, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6491. Please do not send cash. Credit card donations can be made at: https://www.latimes.com/holidaycampaign. Contributions of $25 or more will be acknowledged in The Times unless a donor requests otherwise. For more information about the Holiday Campaign call (800) 528-4637 (LA TIMES), ext. 75480.