How LAUSD Handed Out 13 Million Free Meals In 6 Weeks

A food-relief initiative in Brattleboro, Vermont is helping connect people facing food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic with free meals that are provided by local restaurants. The initiative – which also requires that the restaurants source 10% of the food from local farms – has already provided nearly 12,000 meals to local residents.

For environmental organization GrowNYC, their one-acre teaching farm on Governor’s Island became a victory garden for New Yorkers who aren’t having their basic needs met during the COVID-19 pandemic. While future land development on the island could impact their work, the farm is on track to produce about 20,000 pounds of food that is distributed by other groups like the Black Feminist Project as free or low-cost coronavirus relief food boxes.

To ensure that Black communities have access to healthy food, three people in Los Angeles are taking different approaches to promote food security and food sovereignty. As part of Feed Black Futures, Ali Anderson packs nearly 100 boxes a week of fruits and vegetables to deliver to Black women and caregivers who have been impacted by incarceration. Artist Lauren Halsey and her Summaeverythang Community Center deliver up to 1,000 boxes a week of free organic produce. Chef Kat Williams is also making sure Black people of the LGBT community have access to healthy meals.

When the economy came to a sudden halt with the onset of a global pandemic, farmers were left with produce meant for the restaurant industry while families who lost incomes struggled to put food on their tables. For one good samaritan “it was just a matter of connecting the dots.” George Ahearn's idea to crowdsource transportation from farms to food banks led to the creation of EastWest Food Rescue, a nonprofit that has delivered 2.4 million pounds of crops to 160 food banks.

California’s Glendale Community College normally operates a food pantry, called Food for Thought Pantry, for its students. Forced to close to slow the spread of COVID-19, it partnered with the Los Angeles Food Bank and the Glendale Community College charitable foundation to create a mobile food pantry for students and their families. Collecting food from farmers, wholesalers, grocers, growers, and distributors, they served a line of over 1,000 vehicles in April.

When the Bay Area issued a shelter-in-place order as a response to containing the spread of COVID-19, businesses had to adapt. From a local distillery creating hand sanitizer at cost, to a restaurant offering groceries, to a catering business selling drive-through meals, local businesses have gotten creative to maintain revenue and pay employees.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic making access to groceries more difficult, The Walker River Paiute Tribe created a food pantry to support members of the tribe and local farmers. The food pantry has since become the largest in the state, by volume of distributed food, having distributed about 6,500 bags of food to over 355 households.

After the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted seafood supply chains, several organizations in the New England region took steps to connect fishermen’s catches with the local community. For example, the Rhode Island–based nonprofit, Eating with the Ecosystem, distributed nearly 72,000 pounds of seafood — including lesser-known species like scup, hake, quahogs, and conger eel — with the help of local organizations to multicultural communities. "I think it's really important we become more aware of what's actually in our ecosystem, all these diverse species,” said the nonprofit’s program manager.

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit and grocery store shelves became bare, many consumers sought to purchase meat directly from farmers. The Shop Kansas Farms group on Facebook has more than 148,000 members with about 800 producers who are selling their goods. While there needs to be more education for farmers on how to sell their livestock and for consumers on the intricacies of buying from processors, people in other states are creating their own groups to better connect consumers to vendors.

In 2014, the community organization Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha piloted a community-based Food Buying Club in Philadelphia. This initiative allowed local residents to buy food in bulk at wholesale prices. The goal was to strengthen food security and combat the lack of affordable and nutritious food in their neighborhood. Despite distributing over 62,000 pounds of fresh produce, the program shut down due to financial reasons. Now, after forming an advisory council and working on their business strategy with others in the community, the club is reopening and is looking to expand across the city.