Laverne Cummings sat on a bench at a relief agency for two hours the other day, waiting with a neighbor for free food.
"If you want to accomplish anything you have to be patient," she said. "There's food out there. You just have to get out and find it."Hunger is stalking riot-ravaged South Central Los Angeles.
Before the riots, going hungry was common enough for the neighborhood's poor residents. Then three days of fiery mayhem after the Rodney King verdict on April 29 laid waste to supermarkets, corner groceries - and about 40,000 jobs.
Markets spared in the riots lost supplies when power outages spoiled refrigerated and frozen goods.
At first, donors rushed in with food. But that largesse is drying up and greed may be taking its place in the form of inflated store prices.
Relief workers worry about what will happen to the disaster area when the donations stop.
"I really fell apart . . . worrying whether we can keep it up," said Rita Russo, executive director of Seedling, the agency where Cummings, 52, exercised her patience to help a friend with two small children to feed. "I have my doubts right now. It makes you want to cry."
South Central is a sprawling district near the heart of Los Angeles. More than 30 percent of area families lived in poverty in 1990, census figures show; four in 10 households earned less than $15,000 a year.
Without a car, the daunting geography and a complicated bus system makes shopping for food elsewhere a trial. Even getting to relief centers around South Central can take all day. The fortunate have neighbors who share cars and child care.
At The Seedling's narrow office, they find a clutter of cartons of Froot Loops, pasta, tuna, oats, butter and other staples. Volunteers break into a sweat slicing open the cartons, stocking shelves, taking information from the needy and packing food boxes.
The Seedling served 1,238 families in May, up from its usual 900 families a month.
One frustrated man who was denied food - recipients may come only once a month - beat up a volunteer, Russo said.
"People's tempers are short. There's still a lot of anger and sometimes we end up being the butt of that," she said.
Russo and others say some merchants have jacked up prices since the riots.
"One woman came in angry that a market was charging $5 for 15 chicken wings," Russo said. "Another went to the liquor store across the street and was charged $1.82 for a pint of milk. She was in tears when she told me that."
Much of the donated food comes through the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, a conduit for private, corporate and government donors.
Foodbank Executive Director Doris Bloch estimated it has fed hundreds of thousands of people since the riots.
"The initial donor response has been overwhelming," Bloch said. "But by July, all the private businesses that want to donate will have done so."
Waning contributions at Greater Bethany Community Church shrank its food distribution from six days a week to one.
Last Wednesday, Greater Bethany lacked bags for doling out corn, flour, soap, toilet paper and other basics. Church administrator Richard Rubin said the lone area supermarket told him to fax a request for a donation.
"It gets a little tight," Rubin said. "I don't really know if we should open up next week. But if you can't deliver, you've got hell on your hands."