Sitting beside an L-shaped desk in her second-floor front office of the new St. Margaret's Center in Lennox, Mary Agnes Erlandson can see through the big tinted window young Latino mothers wheeling strollers through the parking lot and carrying plastic bags of groceries. She can also watch passenger planes locked into their descending flight paths passing over the bright yellow with reddish-orange trim stucco building that used to house a mini-mall.

But the seasoned 51-year-old social service director can't hear the 747s, and that makes her smile. "The sound is so good in here," she says. "At the old place, even though we were farther east, it was so noisy from the airplanes that I'd have to tell people to call back 'cause I couldn't hear a word."

For the last four years, however, Erlandson hasn't been smiling much. Even though an anonymous donor agreed to get them out of the overcrowded building the center had been in since 1987 by buying a new place and leasing it back at cost. Then, eventually, the new facility would be donated to Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, which sponsors St. Margaret's Center.

"I thought that getting the money to buy a building was the hard part," she says, shaking her head. "But the whole process of finding the building was so much more difficult. We looked for four years. Four years! We were limited geographically because we wanted to be within a mile of our current location because so many of our clients walk to us.

"Plus there were parking issues, zoning issues. We looked at some eight potential sites, but the deal always fell through. My fear was that the donor would give up. But she stuck with us through all of that. And now we're on Inglewood in the heart of Lennox. It's a really interesting mixed-use neighborhood with residences, apartments, businesses. So it just feels like a good fit."

Pantry size doubled
First stop on the director's tour is through the downstairs food panty to check out the new double-compartment walk-in commercial metal freezer. She points out that the pantry has doubled in size and how now with the freezer the center can accept a lot more fresh produce.

In fact, even though the center has been open for less than a week at 10217 South Inglewood Avenue, the freezer is packed. There are crates loaded with salads and frozen vegetables along with bottles of water, cheese, frozen entrees like spaghetti with meatballs, cartons of milk and loaves and loaves of bread. On another shelf, sack lunches are ready to be passed out to the homeless.

Jason Bishop, a 29-year-old AmeriCorps volunteer from Memphis, Tennessee, is out of breath after helping to unload 5,000 pounds of goods from a Los Angeles Regional Food Bank truck.

"Going from the old place to here is like going from a two to a ten," he says, glancing down at a sheet with the names of 75 clients who will be coming in today to pick up their monthly allotment of groceries. "We've only been open five days, but it's finally coming together. Today's list filled up faster than I've ever seen it fill up. There's a lot of people who are losing their jobs and are just devastated. So this really helps them out."

In the main reception area, Erlandson introduces her mother, Mary, who is at a computer crunching data. The 84-year-old woman, along with her husband until he died, has volunteered at St. Margaret's Center since it opened its doors in 1987. Some days, the director still has to tell her, "Mom, you'd better go, there's going to be traffic going home to San Pedro."

Upstairs in a large room with half a dozen tables scattered about, an English class is being held. A tall man named Troy from the Centennial Valley Adult School is asking his Spanish-speaking students questions. Walking over to the door, he explains that he hasn't had time to fix up his classroom yet. "It's rags to riches," he says, referring to the move. "We're still fixing things up, and I'm already happy. People say the worse day here is better than the best day over there."

Capacity to grow
Erlandson returns to her office to talk about other benefits - some practical, some aesthetic - being in the new building will have on the varied services and programs that have developed since St. John Chrysostom Church in Inglewood and St. Joseph Church in Hawthorne joined with Catholic Charities of Los Angeles to start St. Margaret's Center under the leadership of Msgr. Gregory Cox.

Besides the food pantry and ESL (English as Second Language) classes, these include psychological counseling, rent and utility assistance, shelter vouchers, translation, Food Stamp and health insurance application help, citizenship classes, immigration processing, educational workshops, mammograms and vision screening, a Christmas program for children and parents plus referrals.

"It gives us the capacity to grow," she points out. "During the last couple years, we had to turn down offers from outreach workers who wanted to work on site. Now with more space than we had in the other building, we can actually add programs. Before we were just juggling office and storage space, with boxes all over.

"Also we will just be able to serve our individuals and families better," she adds. "I think this will provide a place to serve with more dignity, respect for people. It'll look beautiful, especially when we have the mural in front done and landscaping. And that's a good thing to offer because our clients are coming here burdened with problems and troubles. To have a place that's physically beautiful with more space is wonderful."

New clients
The move was just in time to serve the rising number of people who have been coming to St. Margaret's Center during the summer and fall months. July 2, in fact, was the center's busiest day ever, when more than 120 families received groceries -even more than at traditionally swamped Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"I think it's just the economy, a combination of gas and food prices really going up and people are really hurting," Erlandson explains. "Just this morning a man who recycles stuff came and said he'd gotten an eviction notice. I'm trying to help him. He told me, 'In 20 years I've never, ever been to a place like this.' I said, 'We can all be in that situation.'

"But we're seeing a lot of new clients who've never used a food pantry before," she reports. "It's really hard for them, especially seniors. We're really concerned for them because they don't have any ability to have more income that what they have. And if they're receiving SSI [Supplemental Security Income], it's only like $860 a month. So we're getting a lot of seniors, mostly for food."

Maria Teresa Posada has been coming to St. Margaret's Center for three years -not only for food but also for mammograms and eye exams, English lessons and citizenship classes. When she's asked about the new locale, in Spanish she says it's much, much better.

"In the building before, we had to wait outside to get food," the 65-year-old woman says. "Now we have a little lobby to wait in. And the building is so new and clean and beautiful. But right now it is very difficult to pay for everything with prices going up. It is difficult for older folks like me. So this place is a great help."

Editor's note: For more information about St. Margaret's Center (10217 S. Inglewood Avenue, Lennox, CA 90304) or to make a donation, call (310) 672-2208 or e-mail stmargaretscenter@sbcglobal.net.