Hunger Action Los Angeles

Market match:hunger Action la's chief program in terms of size and reach is market match, which provides bonus dollars in the form of coupons (reimbursable by us to the farmers who accept them) for California grown fruits and vegetables at participating farmers markets. As of the end of 2023, there are 39 farmers markets participating in market match with Hunger Action la. The markets track the number of coupons distributed and spent, and the amount is reimbursed by Hunger Action la to the farmers market operators who in turn reimburse the farmers. The funding for the program is largely from the federal gusnip and state cnip grants, which are provided to the principal contractor the ecology center in berkeley. Hala subcontracts to the ecology center and receives monthly reimbursements from them, and pays monthly checks to the farmers market operators (adams Vermont: thai cdc: eastmont community center: California farm direct: southland farmers market association: fm & lce: pasadena farmers market: healthy community project; providence health: ven a ver; and others.) In late 2022 and continuing into 2023, the county of Los Angeles began to also provide considerable funding to market match. This funding supplements that which we receive from the federal and state funds that pass through the ecology center, and does not duplicate any expense incurred that is paid for by that other funding. Market match continued to be popular as the pandemic continued and food price inflation began to affect people in 2022 throughout 2023. In 2022 funding issues did force us to reduce the benefit per person to $10 per market visit but in 2023, we increased the benefit to $15 and by september to $20. Hala funded $761,762 in market match transactions in 2023. Of that amount $409,667 was through the ecology center invoices, funded ultimately by the state and federal sources, and $352,095 was through the county arpa funding. There were 5,442 new customers to the program and a total of 64,774 transactions altogether. The customers spent $1,568,491 of their calfresh benefits to obtain the matching amount, meaning a total of $2,330,253 was spent by them on fruits and vegetables benefitting 285 local farmers as well as their households with nutritious food. There were 39 participating markets by december 2023 . The statistics on calfresh spent and number of transactions does not include the pilot at adams/vermont discussed in the next section, which by itself processed $399,272 of calfresh and bonus benefits for 8,871 customer transactions. California department of social services fruit and vegetable pilot: the market match has proven successful over the years, resulting in legislative advocacy to create a system that simplifies market match, and allows it to be operated at grocery stores as well as farmers markets, by transferring the bonus benefits directly onto participants' ebt cards (calfresh) rather than the market match system of providing paper bonus coupons. As a result of this, the state contracted with the ecology center to pilot this version of the program at farmers markets in a few areas of California. Hunger Action la subcontracted to operate the pilot at the adams Vermont farmers market. Because the benefits are put directly onto the participant's cards, the process of distributing paper coupons; having the markets reimburse the farmers for the coupons; having Hunger Action la reimburse the markets; having Hunger Action la invoice the ecology center; and having the ecology center reimburse Hunger Action la, is eliminated. This leads to efficiency and the only expenses billed to the state by Hunger Action la, via the main contractor the ecology center , were for personnel expenses. The popularity of the program exploded through efforts of Hunger Action la's allies in the korean community, leading sometimes to over 500 participants at the market in one day. This is about 5 times the usual participants under the traditional market match program. The number of participants did require Hunger Action la to hire ultimately 10 people, nearly all of them part-time contractors, to manage the market and the participants, and provide constant interpretation into korean as the clientele at the market became 90% korean seniors. From may through december 8,871 calfresh plus bonus transactions of up to $60 per month per customer were processed at adams Vermont for $399,272 worth of fruits and vegetables. Wic plus and senior plus: 9,806 wic participants and 529 senior participants at farmers markets were provided a total of $164,790 in additional bonus coupons we called "wic plus and "senior plus" through a grant program funded by the California department of food and agriculture. These benefits, like market match, were distributed by Hunger Action la staff at 9 participating farmers markets, not the full number of markets participating in market match. While market match bonus coupons "match" calfresh benefits, the wic plus and senior plus coupons "match" farmers market nutrition program benefits. This program operates under a 2 year contract with California department of food and agriculture for 2023 and 2024. Hala administers two subcontractors: sustainable economic enterprises of Los Angeles (see-la) (now known as food access la) and model neighborhood program (whose participation will begin in 2024.) See-la was issued $106,219 in the subaward by hala.

Calfresh outreach (baila):hunger Action la's calfresh team completed grant activities from a subcontract to the California association of food banks, the ultimate funding source being la care, in january 2023, and began grant activities on a second contract that ran from january to december of 2023. Chelsea left hala in mid-2023 resulting in a few months of decreased activity. Cathy snuggs and other staff members stepped up to fill in. There are plans to hire additional calfresh outreach staff in 2024 if more funding is acquired. Activites included :- outreach to over 3,000 persons with assistance offered to help enroll in calfresh if interested- over 2,300 screenings of persons for eligibility - completed enrollments for 171 households- creation of flyers in multiple languages including targeted flyers for outreach to unhoused individuals, persons with felony backgrounds, seniors and people with disabilities, and persons in households of mixed immigration status- regular presence at farmers markets in adams/vermont, san pedro, and norwalk to inform and assist customers interested in applying for calfresh- information sharing with the baila coalition of over 25 organizations and cross-referral to agencies that assist with health care program enrollment- daily monitoring of the unite us web portal for referrals from other agencies.

Food delivery:hunger Action la created a weekly food delivery program in march 2020 as an emergency response to the covid pandemic to serve 100 to 200 homebound people who needed food. This program has continued since and in 2023 experienced growth. For most of 2023 hala relied on general operating expenses funding to pay for the main costs of the program, which include contractor daulette kimble who manages the packing of the food on wednesday, and purchase of prepared meals from everytable, a well known enterprise providing nutritious prepared meals that expanded during the pandemic and demand for home delivered food. Nearly all of the work was performed by volunteers who packed the food and delivered to households. In the spring hala applied for a grant offered by the county called kickstarter. We received approval for the grant and the first batch of $100,000 in november. We will begin spending those funds down in 2024.in 2023, hala continued it's partnership with doordash for the meal delivery as well as contracting with all n one. Hala at the end of 2023 was serving 141 households and in total has served over 200 unduplicated households since the beginning of the pandemic. Each week about 8 volunteers and about 10 doordash drivers take the food to the participants, while other participants pick up the food themselves.. The participants were mostly referred to hala at the beginning of the pandemic, consisting first of the blind/low vision contingent of Hunger Action la program participants, and then expanding to referrals from a variety of sources including many who used google to locate hala resources. Other referrals come from kaiser permanente , unite us online platform, and other clinics, plus word of mouth. The participants consisted in a typical week of 35 large families requiring larger amounts of uncooked groceries; 100 households comprised of single individuals or couples, mostly seniors who received smaller allotments than the families; and about a dozen persons receiving prepared meals instead of groceries. In 2023 we operated the program for 47 weeks out of the year. About 66,270 pounds of food was donated (an estimate based on 141 bags or meal boxes per week x 10 lbs of food x 47 weeks.) The value of the food is around $430,755 based on average of about $6.50 per lb. Volunteers logged in about 2,256 hours. For the purposes of a grant from the Los Angeles department of sanitation, Hunger Action la served as fiscal sponsor for mutual aid Action la, which is one of hala's major sources of donated food for distribution to hungry people. Through this sponsorship, maala received $25,000 for a larger and safer truck for their food collection program. This has resulted in the ability to transport more food to hala for the wednesday delivery program, an outstanding example of cooperative economics.

Policy advocacy: state policy: hala was very involved in state policy in 2023 due to crises resulting from the pandemic and the economic distortion created by the recovery. In march, calfresh recipients - 5 million californians - received their last emergency allotment, which had provided a critical boost to benefits throughout the covid-19 crisis. This was an overwhelming $500 million cut to calfresh statewide per month. Many households experienced a drop in food benefits from $281 a month to just $23. This abrupt sunsetting of emergency allotments caused a dramatic and unprecedented "benefits cliff", resulting in Hunger and hardship across our entire state. Hunger Action la was a co-sponsor of two pieces of state legislation: one (sb 600, menjivar) to increase the minimum benefits in the calfresh program, and the other (ab 712, carrillo) to allow calfresh to be used to purchase hot foods (which would also depend on a federal waiver to allow this.) Both of these bills passed. For the first one, hala traveled to sacramento with a low income individual who is directly impacted by the low amount of benefits available to him (only $23 per month.) Hala played the role of co-chair in the California Hunger Action coalition and coordinated southern California activities for the coalition including Hunger Action day, which for the first time since 2019 had some in-person activities in sacramento although hala chose to remain in Los Angeles and participate remotely. Hala also participated regularly in ca4ssi, a coalition dedicated to increasing benefits and well-being for senior and disabled californians who receive supplemental security income (ssi.) County policy: hala continued to participate monthly in the food equity roundtable, an invitation based coalition run out of the county of Los Angeles which shared ideas on ending Hunger and promoting food security in Los Angeles county at large.

The flying squad is an affiliation of individuals who desire to carry out the following charitable activities: helps the homeless by talking to them as human beings and listening to them and then by trying to figure out, in real time, how to help them survive life in the street and ultimately get off the street, into apartments of their own choosing. The flying squad hands out cards that say let's talk - simple as that - and then follows up in person right away, on a same-day basis, when a respondent calls their number on google voice or emails us to begin the conversation.

Peoples guide to welfare, health and other services: hala publishes the peoples guide which has become the standard guidebook of public social services for people in need of assistance. The books were distributed largely through legal aid foundation of Los Angeles and neighborhood legal services of Los Angeles. They are usually provided free in varying quantities, including 2 free copies each for any low income person on request.

Other projects: proyecto jardin has created an urban garden and provides education on organic agriculture, sustainable food systems, recycling to reduce the use of materials that end up in the waste stream, and food recovery and composting. Activities include education in urban agro-ecology, reclaiming ancestral foodways, and community engagement and leadership development.