Food bank leads fight against hunger crisis
by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan
One in every eight residents in Los Angeles County has to deal with hunger and food security every day. The city is seeing an unprecedented hunger crisis that affects about 1.2 million people, according to a study by the US Conference of Mayors. Compounded with the high rates of joblessness and homelessness, the food security issues make this one of the hardest times to be a needy resident of the city.
And yet despite the daunting nature of LA's problems, some organizations are still doing their part to address these issues. The Los Angeles Regional Food bank is at the forefront of the fight to save the city from this hunger crisis. The non-profit has been providing food to the city's neediest for 36 years, and today works with more than 900 agencies in LA County to combat hunger.
Operating out of a 55,000 sq. ft. facility in Central Alameda, the food bank begins its work when it receives food from a number of different sources, including the United States Department of Agriculture, food manufacturers, local supermarkets and retailers, and Feeding America, a national food bank network. Thefood bank has its own fleet of trucks to collect food daily and also brings in donations through food drives and special events.
The items donated to the bank can range from canned soup to fresh fruit - with about a million pounds of food going through the food bank weekly - and even occasionally toys and other non-food items that need a home.
"One thing that people are often surprised to hear is that the food bank actually distributes a lot of fresh produce, it's not just canned good which is traditionally what food banks give out," said Julie Flynn, communications specialist for LARF.
"We're trying to get the most nutritious food out to the community. Fresh produce is actually the largest category of food we provide."
Once the donations are in, the volunteers begin sorting through the food, inspecting it for quality and then separating it into various categories. More than 20,000 volunteers provided their services atLARF this past year, Flynn said. In addition to the sorting, these volunteers also helped out with packaging the food into kits for seniors and children, and assist with food drives and other special events.
The food then goes out to pantries, charities and other agencies who are working to alleviate hunger in their own communities. After putting in their orders for estimated demand, these organizations, like the Los Angeles mission downtown or the St. Agnes Parish, pick up their food in vehicles ranging from large trucks to the back ofsomeone's car. It is in this part of the operations that the city's hunger crisis has been most apparent, according to Flynn, as they've seen demand skyrocket.
"When we see a demand in services, we have to get more food out the door," she said,
"Right now we're distributing about a million pounds a week, that's the most we've ever distributed, in our history.
"We're just seeing a lot more action, we've added some new agencies, and just overall the pressure to get more food out quickly is there."Although the rising demand hasn't seen a corresponding plummeting of resources in a bad economy - Flynn said donations had stayed about the same - the level of the demand has still affected the food bank and its staff of 80. The increase in food making it's way through the system has forced them to rent other locations just to have enough space for everything.
"The biggest challenge [for the food bank] is twofold - the increase in demand and simultaneously that we are really pinched for space," she said. "Our current facility is very small for the amount of food that we're distributing and it feels pretty tight for everybody, warehouse and truck space, office space and across the board."
With the growing hunger crisis, it is unlikely that food banks like LARF will be able to solve Los Angeles' problems alone. The US Conference of Mayors report estimates that food banks only reached 250,000 people on a monthly basis, leaving out 79 percent of those in danger of starvation. Still Flynn said they are focused on being able to provide as much food as they can as well as ratchet up the quality.
"The mission of the food bank is to continue to mobilize resources to fight hunger in our community. More specifically right now we're looking at quality nutritious food, obviously to try to get our more food to keep up with the demand, but also to focus on nutritious food."
1973
Tony Collier, a cook, began collecting and distributing food for the hungry, eventually moving his operation into a two-car garage.
1977
Based on Collier's initiative, a group of local residents forms the Board of Directors and incorporates the Food bank as a nonprofit corporation, moving into a 2,600 sq. ft. facility in Pasadena.
1983
The Food Bank, headed by Doris Bloch, moves to a 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse in El Monte, and begins several programs in affiliation with America's Second Harvest, the national food bank network.
1989
Now officially called the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, a capital campaign is launched to build a 55,000 sq.ft. distribution center at 1734 E. 41st Street in Los Angeles. The bank distributes 18 million pounds of food.
A second capital campaign is launched to pay for the purchase and renovation of two adjacent buildings, adding 41,000 sq. ft. and increasing distribution to 32 million pounds.
2008
Food bank commemorates its 35th year of service to those in need in Los Angeles County.
The Food Bank, as a part of the broad network of nonprofits working to alleviate hunger, is constantly partnering up with different organizations or developing new initiatives, to tackle the problem in different ways.
Fresh Produce/Rapid Food Distribution
The food bank provides delivery of fresh produce and perishable goods to agencies that have limited refrigeration, and would not normally have access to these goods. The goods are delivered through the bank's fleet of food trucks.
December 10, 2009