Jennifer Auther: Thousands in LA left hungry despite boom times

Jennifer Auther

CNN Correspondent Jennifer Auther reports on food assistance and hunger in the Los Angeles area.

Q: How many people need food assistance in Los Angeles?

AUTHER: The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank feeds about 320,000 people each week, and it's getting tougher for them because donations are down this year.

The organization gets the food from donations through all types of programs, including the USDA's Emergency Food Assistance program. Grocery stores donate surpluses, and there are individual and corporate donations.

What happens is that the regional food bank disperses the food through 940 different churches, charities, temples, synagogues and mosques in Los Angeles County. The charities place their orders by fax the day before they want the food from a list of things available and they come in early in the morning, stack up their trucks with food and take all the food back to the churches and mosques and charities. That's how they distribute food to poor families that way.

Michael Flood, the executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, said 135,000 pounds of food goes out of this one facility every day.

The problem is that donations this year are down, and the competition to get food into the Food Bank has increased. Grocery stores used to be able to get credit for damaged goods . but they don't get credit for that anymore, so grocery stores have decided to sell off the damaged items to discount stores - items that normally would have gone to charity.

Supply at the LA regional Food Bank is down 66 percent and demand is up 33 percent for families.

Q: What sort of things has the center done to try to increase supply?

AUTHER: The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has been doing outreaches to get their shelves stocked again. These outreaches include contacting manufacturers and retailers and doing food drives to try to make up for the increasing need.

According to the regional director, Los Angeles is one of the three hardest hit areas in the country. Despite record unemployment in the country, hunger is still very real, especially in big cities.

The reason why these regional centers are really important is that the churches, synagogues and mosques can't hold all this food. They don't have all the refrigeration necessary to keep the food fresh enough to eat. So, these centers are very vital to the charities and shelters.

Q: How massive is the facility where they store this food?

AUTHER: The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has more than 150,000 square feet of warehouse space. Within that, there is a 300,000-cubic- foot refrigerator where they keep the various food donations.

Q: Is hunger a far-reaching problem across the United States?

AUTHER: Twenty-five city mayors met last week in the nation's capital to discuss hunger in the United States. It was their 16th annual status report on hunger and homelessness in America's cities.

They found that during the past year requests for emergency food assistance increased by an average of 17 percent, with 83 percent of cities registering an increase. Twenty-five cities were surveyed. The report says the 17 percent increase is the second highest rate of increase since 1992.

Requests for food by elderly persons increased by 9 percent nationwide, according to the study; 32 percent of the adults seeking help with food assistance were employed.

They cite their problems for making ends meet, ranging from high housing costs, low paying jobs, soaring utility costs, poverty, substance abuse, food-stamp cuts and welfare reform.

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The Los Angeles Regional Foodbank
United States Department of Agriculture
  •  The Emergency Food Assistance Program - Fact Sheet

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