The need for food in L.A. County has reached record levels, putting food banks under pressure to deliver.
campaigns, in order to buy food that they used to receive for free.. Before the pandemic began, an estimated 1.5 million people in L.A. County were considered potentially eligible for government food assistance, according to the most recent figures available from CalFresh, the state’s nutrition assistance program.In April, CalFresh applications skyrocketed from an average of 40,000 to nearly 120,000 per month.
The food bank oversees more than 600 food agencies across Los Angeles County. Since the pandemic brought the region to a halt in mid-March, the need for food county-wide shot up 80 percent, Flood said. Food pantries Food donations have increased by 32 percent since the lockdown began but that’s hardly been enough to help the Regional Food Bank catch up with demand. At distribution centers, Flood said, the five-week food stockpile they began with in mid-MarchMary Agnes Erlandson, director of St. Margaret’s Center Catholic Charities of Los Angeles talks to Victor Ponce and wife Rosalinda Ramirez as close to 300 families line up now each Wednesday to collect food at a drive-thru and walk-up pantry.
Salvation Army officials also have scrambled to find food and raise money to pay for it. The agency runs about 30 food pantries in L.A. County. Since demand skyrocketed, the organization has spent about $1 million to buy food for distribution across Southern California, most of it in Los Angeles.“Whatever we get one day goes out the next,” said John Chamness, divisional commander for the Salvation Army’s Southern California branch.
Over its 150-year existence, the Salvation Army has supplied relief during tornadoes, fires, earthquakes. But this health crisis, Chamness said, has been unlike any other.“Typically our folks step in to give each other a break, but this time we’re all in it together,” he said. “There’s no passing the baton and though the uncertainty of when this is all going to end is wearing on all of us, we have to find the energy to keep going.
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