Appetite grows for food aid

At MEND, food bank director Gina Mirabella said her volunteers spend hours some days dialing grocers and food manufacturers requesting donations. She said she's even gone so far as to phone the toll-free number on cereal boxes and Canadian outlets asking for donations from their Los Angeles warehouses.

"I try to keep up by covering more ground, covering more stores, covering more merchants, covering more companies," said Mirabella, who said the workload is the highest it's been in her 20 years at MEND. "We come up short mostly on cereals and soups and canned meats."

In search of eggs, milk and other staples to feed her husband and three children, Maria Oliveros visited her neighborhood church in Pacoima recently, only to find that they were out of food.

Sitting in a dirt backyard surrounded by a camper covered by a plastic tarp, a camper shell and several rusted storage sheds, Oliveros said two-thirds of her husband's paycheck pays for two rooms the family rents in a nearby bungalow.

What's left is barely enough to pay for gas, school uniforms and other necessities, she said, forcing her to seek free food for her family several times a week.

"Last year I would go to the church every once in a while, but now I go every Monday and Tuesday," Oliveros said through an interpreter. "It's very hard right now."

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jennifer.oldham@latimes.com