FOOD CHAIN L.A.

Help Feed Your Community

Volunteer

we have saved over

66,205 lbs

of landfill-destined produce

FOOD WASTE IN L.A.

over one million tons of food go into LA landfills every year.

food insecurity

more than 2 million people in LA live with food insecurity -- that's 1 in 5.

covid-19 impacts

because of covid-19, numbers of those suffering from food insecurity have risen to 54 million.

Consulting

by some estimates as much as $57 billion of food is wasted annually

sources: goodfoodla.org, lafoodbank.org, aamc.org, oregon.gov

OUR MISSION

Food Chain L.A.'s mission is to combat food insecurity and food waste in the local community by encouraging students to rescue excess produce, baked goods, and more from farmers' markets and local businesses. These goods are collected for distribution to food pantries, senior centers, youth centers, churches, and other volunteer-based organizations. We strive to empower students to make a meaningful impact through connecting with their peers and their immediate community.

what we've accomplished

We have had over volunteers from 7 different schools in the LA area work with us to collect produce from vendors at more than 8 different local farmers markets, along with several bakeries around the city. Our volunteers attend the farmers markets weekly to pick up fresh produce from vendors and donate it to different homeless shelters and distribution centers. In the process, we have formed strong friendships with vendors by seeing them every week and working together to help our community. Check out the places we collect food from on our ABOUT page, and check out volunteering photos on our VOLUNTEER page!

WHY FOOD CHAIN LA?

At Food Chain L.A., we obtain food from smaller businesses like local bakeries, and restaurants as well as farmers markets, which are places that big food-rescuing corporations tend to ignore. We save the food that would otherwise be thrown away, and we focus on distribution to small places that need food such as local distribution centers homeless shelters, and community centers.

We make sure that the food we rescue is going out to families who rely on organizations other than food banks, especially during the pandemic.

Since COVID-19, many food banks and distribution centers, such as the LA Food Bank and YMCA have stopped taking teen volunteers.

At Food Chain LA, we focus on getting students involved from our local communities in order to combat this issue.