Alleviating Food Insecurity in South LA

Food insecurity and access to basic needs

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Food insecurity is a pervasive problem in today's world--one that has a cascade of negative effects and many negative implications on community health and growth. While we are not yet large enough to affect the whole of Los Angeles County, AfricActive is extremely proud of being able to help the 850 families per month that depend on us for their nutritional needs--who show up every Saturday and can feed their kids and family members. If our work is successful, we hope to expand to 200 more families to have easy access to nutritious, high-quality food that will improve the overall health outcomes of the people of Los Angeles County. They will be able to eat a diet comprised mainly of natural, whole foods--and consequently have the opportunity to focus on their education and careers without constantly worrying about health issues due to a lack of nutritious food. And ultimately, the growth of one family will project onto others--until the entire community has risen.

As mentioned above, the main project that AfricActive is undertaking is meant to mitigate the effects of food insecurity within South LA. Our primary method of doing this is sourcing leftover food from local food banks, packaging these various food items into balanced boxes of food, and handing out these boxes to locals who are unable to procure high-quality food themselves. We operate at a public park within South LA--and have a refrigerated truck (a recent purchase) that we use to transport the food from the food bank to the park. Then, with the help of our core volunteers and others from around LA, the food is packaged and handed out in a makeshift drive-through, with an area for cars and an area for walk-ups. The grant money will be used to expand our operation, in the form of purchasing more equipment which will allow us to acquire more food and process it. Some key pieces of equipment will include new tables and tents, to accomodate more volunteers and enable us to deal with larger quantities of food. Our refrigerated truck, purchased with donations from amazing Angelenos, has already enabled us to acquire more food than with the smaller trailer used previously. The grant money will also help us to advertise more to zip code areas farther afield than we usually do--as we will now have the food required to serve all of them. Our desire is to increase our reach by 200 families per month.

Food insecurity is a pervasive problem in today's world--one that has a cascade of negative effects and many negative implications on community health and growth. While we are not yet large enough to affect the whole of Los Angeles County, AfricActive is extremely proud of being able to help the 800 families per month that depend on us for their nutritional needs--who show up every Saturday and can feed their kids and family members. If our work is successful, we hope to expand to 200 more families to have easy access to nutritious, high-quality food that will improve the overall health outcomes of the people of Los Angeles County. They will be able to eat a diet comprised mainly of natural, whole foods--and consequently have the opportunity to focus on their education and careers without constantly worrying about health issues due to a lack of nutritious food. And ultimately, the growth of one family will project onto others--until the entire community has risen.

Before each person is given their box of food, they are asked for two things--their name and the number of people in their family. It is through this data that we have determined our impact--that we serve approximately 800 families every month, and almost 5 times that number in humans. More importantly, this number signifies the number of people to whom we have provided high-quality, nutritious food, such that they and their families may thrive. Ultimately, AfricActive is a relatively new organization--only 4 years old--and thus do not possess any complex means of measuring our impact. Much of the evidence of our project working is anecdotal--stories of the gratefulness and joy our regulars feel as they receive their boxes on Saturday mornings, rain or shine, for they know it will be a week that they don't have to worry about their families being forced to eat fast food or some other low-quality option. Our volunteers give their time every week, for they know that it is working.