No doubt it’s cliche, but it’s also heartfelt

The line of families waiting for food handouts wound down the block and around the corner on a busy stretch of Jefferson Boulevard outside the Celerity Nascent Charter School on Monday.

Behind a fence in the schoolyard, the “event producers” were onstage, lauding the spunk of residents in South Los Angeles as tow-headed tykes in “Kids for Peace” T-shirts mugged for the cameras and volunteers from Pacific Palisades and Studio City applauded.

“Remember to say ‘Happy Holidays’ when you give them their box of food,” one charity honcho in a Santa Claus hat reminded her corps of young volunteers.

I was tempted to write off the event as a holiday cliche -- a bunch of suburban do-gooders playing Santa to the ghetto down-and-out.

But when I looked away from the stage and toward the alley -- where boxes of food, cleaning supplies, juice and toys were being handed out -- I couldn’t distinguish the helpers from the needy.

Roman and Gilberta Santiago could easily have been in line this time. He’s a cook and she’s a waitress, but work has been spotty and they’ve struggled this year.

Still, when their sons -- both Celerity Nascent students -- brought notices home asking for help passing out food to needy families, they didn’t hesitate to volunteer.

Gilberta grew up poor in Mexico, one of seven children. “We were happy to have something for dinner on Christmas,” she said. “A roasted chicken, some sandwiches, maybe some sodas. . . . For us, Santa is very nice to make sure we have some food to eat.”

Now, she worries that her sons are disappointed, “because they don’t get those beautiful and expensive Nintendos” -- toys their parents can’t afford.

“I want for them to understand that sometimes you have to give instead of just asking for things. That some kids, in 10 or 11 years, have never had even one toy.”

So her husband helped old ladies and single mothers carry food boxes to their cars. Gilberta helped keep the line moving. Her sons handed out the donated toys.

“Sometimes we get so buried in our own problems,” Gilberta said later, “we forget how good we have it.”

The Santiago family was among dozens from the 2-year-old charter school helping the charities pass out provisions. Most of Celerity Nascent’s students are poor; more than 90% live below the poverty line.

School officials worked with the Salvation Army and local churches, schools, senior citizens centers and homeless shelters to find needy residents. And while many Celerity families were lined up to receive donations, more were volunteering to help pass out the gifts.

“We drum it into our kids. ‘If you are hungry, it’s my fault, if I could have done something to help,’ ” said school founder Vielka McFarlane. “So it’s easy to get everybody rolling up their sleeves.”

From skid row missions to suburban community centers, folks are lining up for donations of food, toys and clothes this season as the spirit of giving takes hold, and good-hearted volunteers are making a difference.

I saw plenty of evidence on Monday: The tattooed Marine volunteering his day off to lug pallets of food up and down the alley; the lanky blond teen in the Led Zeppelin T-shirt weaving among the black and Latino families carrying boxes.

Still, scenes like this always make me vaguely uncomfortable. Guilty, as I dash from store to store, looking for that sold-out pair of tall black Uggs. Worried, when I think about what happens to the poor when the holiday season is done.

I battled those feelings as I walked the alley on Monday, trying to get up the nerve to interview someone.

I watched mothers trying to keep tiny babies warm and impatient toddlers busy. Elderly women, leaning wearily on canes, wondering how far it was to the front of the line. Grown men, looking embarrassed when they met my eyes, then announcing to no one in particular, “I’m just here for my sister’s kids, because she had to be at work today.”

One woman saw my press tag and waved me away. “Don’t come over here with no camera,” she warned.

It was a tossup, then, which one of us was more embarrassed.

What would I have asked her anyway? How does it feel to have to stand in a line for tuna fish and toilet paper?

Charity and school officials made a point to say they’ve screened the recipients; no one can get a box without a blue voucher. I winced as I listened to a volunteer explain to a young mother of three that she’s entitled to only one toy because she has only one voucher.

Who, except the truly needy, would stand in line for hours for a box filled with rice, canned goods and soap, I wonder. We take pains to make sure they’re poor enough at Christmas to warrant a sudden dose of good fortune.

And then, says Aaron Wynn, “we forget about them the rest of the year.”

Wynn is an “event coordinator” for Feed the Children, which brought two truckloads of food and supplies to be given away on Monday. Today, they’ll be in Atlanta doing the same thing. And every day for the rest of the year they’ll be someplace else in this country. The international charity group gives out more than 100 million pounds of food each year in America.

“People say, ‘Where do you find people that poor?’ But that’s never the problem,” Wynn said. “You find it everywhere you go. We find them, we feed them . . . and we know it’s not enough. But when you see the people’s faces and how happy they are, I know it’s a cliche, but it sure feels good.”

Yeah, it’s a cliche. Like peace on earth, goodwill toward men. But it sure beats going to bed hungry.

sandy.banks@latimes.com