Foodbank of Southern California

Causes: Food, Food Banks & Pantries, Food Programs

Mission: The Foodbank's mission is to provide highly nutritious food to the community’s hungry citizens and to ensure that no individual goes hungry, not even for a single day. 68% percent of the food recipients are hungry children, 19% are hungry seniors, and 13% are hungry adults. The Foodbank has been providing food to impoverished children, families, and seniors residing in Los Angeles County since 1975, with a dominant focus on the poorest neighborhoods, including downtown Los Angeles, Compton, San Pedro, South Central, Watts, and North Long Beach. The Foodbank solicits wholesome donations of nutritious food from the food industry and channels these products to charitable community organizations supporting low income individuals. The Foodbank of Southern California is a principal front end food provider to hundreds of community-based agencies who feed hungry children, families and seniors. The Foodbank aids community-based organizations who are unable to independently handle the logistics of transportation, storage and refrigeration. The Foodbank’s network receives food for emergency and non-emergency food programs such as shelters for abused children and women, crises centers, day care centers for children and seniors, senior centers, emergency box programs, soup kitchens, and food pantries. The agency is a vital link in the continuum of care that facilitates the needs of low-income people in our community. Of over 700 community-based agencies in The Foodbank’s network, 160 are on an intensive delivery schedule of one to seven days a week, while the remainder receive food on an irregular schedule. Hunger exists in every corner of Los Angeles County, exacting a physical, psychological, social and economic to afflicted children, families, and seniors. Unfortunately, the demand for emergency food assistance in Los Angeles County has increased every year during The Foodbank’s 35-year history. Despite the growth in provision of services, as a feeding agency, The Foodbank is faced with providing increased service delivery to more people than was ever anticipated. Meanwhile, there is a continuous decrease in the already limited government support to transport and distribute food to our disadvantaged constituency. Impoverished families typically have enough money for only one week worth of food for the entire month. A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics study found that an average American family spends 13 percent of their income on food. For a family of five, with an income of $22,000, after taxes, this would leave them with $178 for their monthly food budget. That’s just a little more than a dollar a day per person. In contrast, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's most conservative suggested food budget, The Thrifty Food Plan, proposes that a family of this size should be spending at least $149 a week on food.