The Valley's largest charitable group aiding the poor, MEND serves about 46,200 people a month and has seen demand jump about 26% so far this year.
"There's a perception that the Valley is middle class and one of the richer parts of L.A.," said Marianne Haver Hill, MEND's executive director. "The poverty is very much hidden here."
But recent statistics underscore the fact that times are tough for people of all income levels who call the 225-square-mile Valley area home. Job losses in the Valley's signature industries, such as financial services and entertainment, pushed unemployment claims in May to a four-year high, said Dan Blake, director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at Cal State Northridge.
Local food pantry operators said some clients had exhausted savings and retirement funds and had their vehicles repossessed before they came for free food.
Yet as demand is climbing, food donations to charities throughout Southern California are at record lows, leading some organizations to face a tough choice: Should they feed each family less in order to serve more people?
"We're able to provide less food for the money we have," said Cambria Smith, president of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, a network of 18 pantries that primarily serves people living in the west Valley.
Food pantry administrators said they tend to give cereal and other scarce items to families first, in some cases leaving single clients without certain goods. They also refer clients to agencies in surrounding communities that haven't been hit as hard, and limit free grocery visits to once a month.
The federal government exacerbated food pantry shortages when it slashed two-thirds of the surplus food it donated to charities earlier this decade. In 2002, 42 million pounds of groceries were donated to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and 60% of that came from the Department of Agriculture; in 2007, the organization received 35 million pounds of food, and the government's share of the donations dropped to 25%, said Hoffman, the agency's spokesman.
Supermarkets have also decreased donations by trimming the amount of food sold close to its expiration date and selling dented goods to discount outlets.
With fewer groceries available, many charities are scrambling to raise money to buy staples such as powdered milk. And prices for those staples are at 18-year highs.
