MEND

Through a comprehensive set of programs and services, MEND seeks to alleviate food insecurity and meet the crisis needs of the most vulnerable in order to create opportunities for individuals and families to not only survive, but to thrive. MEND also aims to ensure it continues to be an efficiently run organization capable of meeting the needs of the community and remain an anchor institution in the San Fernando Valley. As we celebrate 52 years, MEND is looking for ways to answer the question: How can we help our community develop the resiliency it needs to combat and overcome the next crisis? Distributing food alone, though important, does not eradicate hunger and food insecurity. Though food access remains critical to our mission, we are also looking at an approach to help more of our families overcome food insecurity and achieve the life security they need. Post-COVID we have therefore introduced HERE WE THRIVE (HWT), which is a suite of services offering wellness, employment/income and other vital supports. Our work is committed to strengthening individuals, families and the entire community by addressing their root challenges. Poverty, wellness, and food security are inextricably linked.

HWT offers the following services to help participants who are ready to address long-term and deep-seated challenges that have kept them from thriving.
o PATHWAYS to Wellness addresses chronic illness such as diabetes & hypertension with improved nutrition, behavior- and lifestyle-change. Participants engage in group activities - nutrition classes, weekly exercise, cooking demonstrations, etc., and a smaller number, approx. 100 participants/year, work with a health coach for individualized care. A partnership with Providence Hospitals allows us to extend this service to an additional caseload of 50 patients to address their routine use of emergency rooms for medical care. Lastly, a collaboration with Partners in Care, allows MEND to support high-need Medi-Cal members address such barriers to health as transportation, housing distress, medication compliance, and more.
o GATEWAYS: Employment Services – helps job seekers with multiple barriers to employment find & keep a good & stable job. Participants receive access to skills development, transitional work experience, vocational learning, and job placement & retention assistance.
o CONNECTIONS: Resource Coordination - a service navigation model that connects participants to community services such as housing, legal, public benefits, mental health, etc.
o LIVING WISE + WELL services provide a place where adults ages 55+ can access food tailored to their needs, engage in light exercise (chair yoga, etc.) and make lasting friendships.
o Finally, FIRST STEP services address the needs of approx. 800-1000 unhoused and homeless individuals, providing them with food, clothing, hygiene items, and referrals to other community resources.

MEND aspires to build a stronger, more resilient community in two ways: (1) by meeting their crisis needs - food, clothing, services for those who are homeless, COVID-information & resources, etc. and; (2) helping them discover and address endemic challenges that contribute to their current economic & social vulnerability. MEND's 2021/24 strategic plan also emphasizes co-location & partnerships with high-impact agencies to address the challenges that keep the most vulnerable in poverty.

The following four major focus areas will guide our work overall over the next 3 years (2021-2024). Annually, work plans, indicators, and measures will be developed by the staff and leadership allowing for maximum responsiveness to changes in our community’s needs.

Strategies for ensuring the needs of those we serve are met, are as follows:
o Partnerships: Leveraging expertise and core capabilities of other providers: Ensuring that MEND maintains robust collaborations with grocery retailers, food distributors, and food service providers who supply the bulk of food for distribution; and partnering with community- & faith-based food pantries are critical to our efforts to reach underserved, food-insecure communities throughout Los Angeles. SB1383 opens up new opportunities to partner with groups that previously did not donate excess food – thus increasing the supply of available edible food for distribution. A third type of partnership is one that brings community resources within easy reach of our clients. In 2022, we will increase efforts to open up onsite space for agencies that provide needed services and who are willing to co-locate at MEND.
o Program Excellence: Adopting measurable and transformational outcomes: Providing for the immediate needs of vulnerable people is important, but MEND is also invested in working one-to-one with families to help them uncover and overcome long-term challenges that keep them dependent on crisis services. This program – Here We Thrive – offers intensive, case managed individualized supports addressing such areas as income/employment, housing, health/wellness, etc. that affect and hold families and individuals back from thriving.
o Financial Integrity: Cultivating a viable and sustainable business model: MEND has worked incredibly hard to retire debt, eliminate deficits, diversify income and build up reserves. In fact, if we hadn’t taken the steps to do so before the pandemic, MEND may not have survived the pandemic. Our commitment to good stewardship is a core strategy which gives our community confidence that MEND will be there through good & hard times.
o Organizational Vitality: Improving fundamental capabilities and core strength: Hiring the right staff & engaging committed volunteers is a key strategy in helping meet goals. MEND’s diverse staff and volunteers are plugged into the communities we serve, and speak the languages our clients speak. This has contributed to a deep trust between those that we serve & MEND.

As an anchor to our community, MEND has accumulated decades of experience in serving the most vulnerable people in the community, developed strong & effective partnerships, and enlisted seasoned and dedicated Board members, organization leadership, professional staff and volunteers to deliver on outcomes. A well-thought out strategic plan with regular monitoring provides the framework for accomplishing key goals.

Started in a San Fernando Valley garage in 1971, MEND has grown from a volunteer-driven group to become an enduring and trusted community anchor. MEND was incorporated in 1976 and established its first office in 1986 and began to provide onsite services. The concerns that Ed and Carolyn Rose sought to address at inception - hunger, crisis, and hopelessness in a wealthy city - remain today. MEND’s mission has endured through the years and continues to anchor & guide our work in the poorest communities. We have offered uninterrupted core services (food, homeless services) for 52 years, and since 2021, we’re also offering intensive interventions to help families address recurring & often, deep-seated challenges that keep them from thriving.

The Community Nourishment Programs (CNP) are MEND’s largest service offerings. Started as a community-run food pantry offering access to supplementary food for low-income people 5 decades ago, CNP now distributes an average of 4 million pounds of nutrition annually through a food pantry (direct to the community), food bank (distribution to 36-50 local food pantries), farmers market (unlimited fresh produce) and the Little Health Market, which addresses the nutrition needs of participants addressing a chronic health condition.

In 2022, MEND benefited almost 300,000 people, a significant number through the Community Nourishment Programs, First Step services for the homeless (789 unduplicated), community engagement & referrals to other agencies, diaper distribution to low-income families (63,000), hundreds of school backpacks, 2,600+ board games/toys, and holiday giveaways. Our Hope & Care community outreach ambassadors provided resources and connections to 113,158 neighbors.

We have a saying at MEND that the most successful participants as those who no longer need our crisis interventions, including supplemental food. This is the goal of many of the people we serve, and in fact because of the input we received during the 2020 strategic planning process, we started Here We Thrive (HWT) case management services to do just that. HWT helps participants address the health and economic challenges that have kept them reliant on the food pantry and other emergency services. With focused tools and resources to address health, employment, & economic deficits, our purpose now includes helping to disrupt the cycles of generational poverty that too many of the individuals and families we serve, experience. Our current strategic plan includes a vision for organizational, individual, and community resilience - because thriving includes being able to bounce back after a crisis. We recognize that successfully addressing these long-term challenges require multiple approaches including – in addition to food access – steady employment & income, financial health, education, social connectedness, legal status, health & wellness, and many other pathways, that we are now offering.