Communities gather for change [Daily News, Los Angeles]

Nov. 14--School kids bombarded by tests, with little time for learning. Parents priced out of health insurance. Families moved from homes scuttled by foreclosure.

One LA, a grass-roots mover and shaker, rallied San Fernando Valley schools, synagogues and churches Sunday to solve these problems and more.

"Why are we here?" asked Rabbi Don Goor of Temple Judea, where more than 500 residents packed the pews for a standing-room only crowd in Tarzana.

"Today is about the power of the San Fernando Valley to breathe new life into dry bones -- to breathe new life into the San Fernando Valley. Let's do it."

The One LA Community Congress of the San Fernando Valley billed itself as a new political force in the Valley.

One LA, an affiliate of the Chicago-based Industrial Area Foundation, has vowed to "build power" for social and economic change.

"Today, the leadership of the northeast Valley is joining the Westside -- the Latino community and the Jewish community -- coming together to address three key ills that are affecting our community," said Yvonne Mariajimenez, deputy director of Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles, based in Pacoima.

One LA's Valley chapter announced a three-part strategy to improve the local schools, state health care and the national housing crisis:

Organize Los Angeles parents, teachers and administrators to implement healthy school lunches -- through local taste tests -- that kids were

willing to eat.

Work with lawmakers in Sacramento to pass Assembly Bill 52, giving the state power to regulate increases in health insurance rates.

Pressure banks via city officials to join a federally approved home loan modification plan to keep families in their homes. The plan, hatched by One LA three years ago, would offer public loans to banks for lowering a home's principle to market value, payable upon sale of the property.

In the San Fernando Valley, for example, home sales dropped by 8 percent in September, compared to the same month last year.

The afternoon congress at Temple Judea was attended by at least 20 nonprofit agencies, churches, schools and synagogues, with interludes of mariachi and klezmer music.

Throughout the meeting, key politicians agreed to meet One LA's agenda, including Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, author of the health insurance bill, Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti and LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer.

In Sun Valley, parents at Fernangeles Elementary School had fought a local landfill blamed on high asthma rates in kids. They'd fought for teacher support to raise test scores.

And they'd supported healthy school lunches.

What they weren't prepared for, however, was the new healthy lunch menu introduced this fall that their kids weren't willing to eat.

Instead of the familiar chalupas, 10-year-old Denise Lizaola found plates of hummus and pita, curry and vegetables and Chinese broccoli and beef.

"She came home and said, 'Mom, the food is different'," said Isabel Mendoza, her mother, before addressing the One LA rally. " 'The smell, it's bad. I don't know what it is.'

"Every day she'd throw her food in the trash."

She and other Fernangeles Elementary parents have asked LAUSD administrators join them for a food tasting night on Dec. 14.

Zimmer, the school board member, agreed.

"The issue of our menus in the LAUSD, sometimes when we make progress, we take two steps back," said Zimmer, a member of Temple Judea. "We need to explain to parents this menu, so they become familiar with it."

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