LA Meals Financial institution distributes record-setting 2.5 million kilos of meals to SoCal households amid coronavirus emergency

LOS ANGELES (KABC) – Millions of Americans turn to food banks during the coronavirus pandemic. Michael Flood, President and CEO of Los Angeles Food Bank, spoke to ABC7 on Skype to explain how you can help and what to do if you need assistance.

Tell us what the LA Food Bank is doing as a key partner in this campaign?

“Bring out and take out a tremendous amount of groceries, fresh produce and frozen food. This is the time of year that shelf-stable items are really important. You know, we’re only on Thursday this week and we are setting another record – in terms of Groceries By the end of this week we’re going to be at £ 2.5 million, the equivalent of more than 2 million meals going through other distributions to our agency network and directly to the people. So we’re definitely feeling that huge impact. I got the unemployment numbers earlier Seen it on the show and we’re definitely feeling it, “said Flood.

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Millions of children do not receive free and reduced school meals due to the closings. What is the LA Food Bank doing to meet this demand?

“Sure, most of our food goes to agency partners, pantries, and other organizations that are doing a great job across Los Angeles county, but we just need to step up that because of that huge demand. You mentioned school districts. We are.” These distributions are currently being expanded at Inglewood and LAUSD as take-away distributions. We also provide partnerships with seniors as part of this program so that these grow quickly. And the other thing we do is these big drives – through distros which I think you’ve probably seen some of the footage from. Just yesterday we were in Burbank at the union for people who work in studios, films, theaters and the like. We had 840 families that got through in one pass, fashion in about three hours. That just gives you an idea of ​​how many people and families are affected, and those drive-throughs that move around the county take the strain off our agencies, which definitely don’t feel it’s working, “Flood said.

What should people do when they want to help or need help with eating?

So there is a lot of information on lafoodbank.org. There is information for volunteers too. Volunteers – this is an essential service – so healthy volunteers can volunteer. This help is needed. There is a ‘Find Groceries’ tab on the You can find local food pantries in your community and then there are other ways to support us financially. We had great support. Thank you to the ABC7 team for the early support. We really appreciate it and this kind of support helps We are stretching our ability to get more food out across Los Angeles County, “Flood said.

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