MEND

Two weeks ago, I took a tour of MEND Poverty in Pacoima. Among other things, Mend is a food bank and job center for impoverished people. The center was inspirational and after hearing from one of their many volunteers I believe they can make their vision ("All residents of our community living in poverty attain self-reliance and contribute to society as caring human beings.") a reality.

The last time I toured a food bank, I was in girl scouts, about 20 years ago.  While I remember being in awe of the many shelves of grocery bags filled with food ready for people to pickup and take home to eat.  I don't remember thinking past the idea of receiving a full bag of free food.  I never thought about the reasons why people were in need of the food, or how it would feel to be in a situation where you had to actually go to a food bank to ask for help.

MEND does an amazing job of treating everyone who visits with dignity.  They don't limit the food donations to the specifics of what they deem people need.  They take everything and using the kitchen staff's immense creativity and abilities to make delicious and filling food for people to eat.  I never thought that I would say this, but it seems to be a place where people would want to hang out.  I mean, the situations people are in are very depressing, but this isn't a sad place.  There is a feeling of hope.

Okay, and I really loved that they were planning on teaching a kitchen skills class that would focus on making marmalade.  I wonder if I could sign up for that class?

http://mendpoverty.org/