Nice RiceDoing well at doing good can...

Nice Rice

Doing well at doing good can get complicated, as the Organizations for the Needs for the Elderly will be happy to tell you.

They found out that it’s not enough to provide food for the poor. It helps if they like what you are dishing out.

The 14-year-old private-sector group started life in 1975 as an attempt by the congregation of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino to provide a hot lunch to the temple’s aging members.

As goals became broader and needs greater, the overseeing committees expanded to include others in the community.

Today, under the acronym ONE, the nonprofit group has metamorphosed into a broad-based community organization that serves more than 20,000 people annually with its many programs.

The main operation is the Senior Service and Resource Center at Reseda Park, where older folks can get legal counseling, information about health services and agencies that serve the aging, and have access to a wide program of arts and crafts and recreation.

ONE’s most popular program is still its hot lunch service, which feeds an estimated 500 people five days a week at locations in Reseda, Canoga Park and Woodland Hills, with a financial assist from the Los Angeles Department of Aging.

Because of the multicultural nature of the aging population in the San Fernando Valley, the organization has, according to nutritional director Bonnie Bishop, tried to have the food reflect the background and heritage of the people being fed.

She cites the south-of-the-border flavor of the dishes provided by ONE at the Guadalupe Center in Canoga Park; it’s a cuisine that has received favorable reviews by the clientele it serves, she says.

For a long time, the group also sponsored a kosher kitchen at a senior citizens center in Van Nuys, carrying out the tradition started by the founders of the original organization.

Bishop says that was canceled recently because of lack of interest. Not as many older members of the Jewish community are keeping kosher anymore, she said.

No sooner had the kosher kitchen shut down, however, than another need presented itself.

“As the demographics of the Valley keep changing, we are now seeing a major Asian population settling here,” says Stephen London, who does community outreach for the organization.

To answer that need, ONE has set up a new Monday-Friday free lunch for the elderly at Christ Community Church in Canoga Park, under the direction of Shu-Mei Hsu.

It serves an ever-expanding Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Cambodian and Laotian population, with about 25 to 40 people showing up to be fed every day.

The only problem is that, outside of rice, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Cambodian and Laotian cooking don’t have a lot in common.

And there are religious considerations, as well, since Buddhists don’t eat cattle, so beef is out.

“Well, there is no doubt that it is a challenge,” Bishop says.

“So we do try to serve them lots of rice,” she adds gamely.

Who Are the Homeless?

Cynthia Caughey, the new executive director of the Women’s Care Cottage in Van Nuys, says few people understand who the homeless actually are.

At a recent meeting of the board of directors of the San Fernando Valley Friends of Homeless Women and Children, which sponsors the organization’s day center in Van Nuys and residence in North Hollywood, she said:

* 77% of all people living below the poverty level in the United States are women and children.

* Of the 150,000 homeless people in California, more than 30,000 are children and 40,000 are women.

* About 25% of all homeless people work full or part time.

Caughey warns that as the economy worsens, more women and children are going to be out on the street.

“Women who are head of a household who lose their job are facing multiple problems. They try to hang on, hoping to find another job quickly, but if that doesn’t happen, they can be in real trouble.

“Without the support of family and/or friends, they can end up homeless with all their possessions gone. I have seen it happen.”

People who are working full-time, but earning only minimum wage, are taking home less than $10,000 annually, and it is almost impossible to pay for rent, food, transportation and child care with that, she said.

But it’s not only the low-wage earner who is experiencing problems.

“I have seen women just like myself end up homeless, and that includes an ex-mayor, a woman with a doctorate in philosophy and a medical doctor.

“The stereotypes just don’t hold.”

Step On It

Twenty years ago, the YMCA sent Steve Beimel of Agoura to Japan to teach English as a second language.

He had really wanted to go to India, but couldn’t get a job there, he recalls. It was serendipity.

“I fell in love with the country and the people, spending five years there, first in northern Japan and then in Tokyo. It gave me an opportunity to see a lot of the country,” he said.

He didn’t know the language when he arrived in Japan, but says he was able to make himself understood, which, considering his present undertaking, is a good thing.

Beimel has signed up six people--including one Israeli and two Taiwanese from the San Fernando and Simi valleys--to go with him on a walking trip of Kyoto, which is south of Tokyo.

The group will leave March 24 and return April 4, living in a youth hostel, eating traditional box lunches, studying Japanese history and culture, and sightseeing in what Beimel thinks is one of the planet’s more beautiful cities.

“I haven’t been in Japan in almost 10 years, so this will be a voyage of discovery for me too,” he says of this sentimental journey.

Beimel says this $1,185 trip is not for the pampered.

“This is an opportunity for people on a limited budget to inexpensively visit one of the most expensive countries in the world,” he says.

If the trip is a success, Beimel plans to lead others.

Overheard

“I am celebrating the 10th anniversary of my 27th birthday, the third anniversary of my divorce and the fact that I have been free from my Christmas card-sending addiction for two years.”

--North Hollywood woman issuing dinner invitation to a friend