L.A. Regional Foodbank launches food drive
Thursday's event comes as demand for assistance is outpacing supply. The organization distributes up to 560,000 meals a week in the L.A. region.
The Los Angeles Regional Foodbank and L.A. County Public Health Department warned Tuesday that the demand for food assistance was outpacing supply.
A sluggish economy, high food prices, the rising cost of living and steep job losses have forced not only the poor, but middle- and upper-middle-class families to seek food assistance.
"This is a problem that is only going to get worse," said Jonathan Fielding, director of the health department, in a morning conference call. "It's a big health issue."
"We're behind the eight ball," said Darren Hoffman, spokesman for the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. "We're already starting at a loss, and we're just trying to increase the amount of food because we know, for the next foreseeable future, it's not going to get better for us."
The foodbank provides food to 875 charitable agencies, such as shelters, churches and missions, in the Los Angeles region and distributes up to 560,000 meals a week. The organization received 12 million pounds of food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2006. That figure had dropped to 9 million pounds in 2007.
The organization served 22,729 households in September, up 41% from the same month last year.
To handle the increase, the agency is trying to be more aggressive by calling on current and former food donors to help. It plans to kick-off a food drive campaign Thursday called the Foodbank Drive Thru. Further details are available at the organization's website
Vives is a Times staff writer.
ruben.vives@latimes.com
