Encino : Church’s Gifts Help Feed Needy

A tractor-trailer laden with enough food for 800 Thanksgiving baskets arrived early Tuesday morning at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Encino for distribution to needy families throughout Los Angeles.

About 100 volunteers at the church on Mulholland Drive unloaded the truck and sorted the turkeys, potatoes, canned goods and other fixings for pickup by two dozen other churches and charities, which later put the food into baskets and gave them away to poor families.

Among the charities that distributed the food--paid for by Bel Air Presbyterian--were the Faithful Central Missionary Baptist Church in Inglewood, the Genesis Harvest Ministry in Canoga Park and the First United Methodist Church in Pacoima.

“The families who receive the baskets “are so overwhelmed, they don’t know what to say,” said Jackie Russell, assistant pastor of Faithful Central.

Members of the Encino church will also distribute more than 150 baskets directly to people who have been referred by congregants, according to project coordinator Rob Stevenson. Bel Air has operated the program for more than 15 years, Stevenson said.

According to Los Angeles County and church officials, an estimated 1.2 million Angelenos--or 13% of county residents--live in poverty and suffer from hunger. About 412,000 families receive food stamps, and many of an estimated 80,000 to 90,000 homeless do not receive assistance of any kind, Stevenson said.

“We’re very blessed as a congregation,” Stevenson said, “and we’re pleased to be able to do this for the community.”