Los Angeles Regional Foodbank

In Los Angeles County, one in three children lives in poverty, and that tugs hard at the hearts of Dorothy and Joe Hudson. Dorothy was 3, her sister a year older, when their father died. It was the Depression--a time of hardship, heartbreak and, in varied forms, beans. When Dorothy tells the story of her life, she begins with 1928, the year of her father's death. He worked as an "insurance man," so it was painfully ironic that when he died, he had no policy of his own.

A record 983,400 Los Angeles County residents -- nearly one in 10 -- received food assistance last year from community pantries, soup kitchens and shelters supplied by the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, according to a study released Tuesday. That is a 46% increase from 2005, the last time the food bank conducted a detailed survey of staff, volunteers and recipients at some of the nearly 900 charitable sites it supplies in the county. "It's a disgrace," said Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The story on John Van Hengel ("A Second Harvest," Jan. 12) does a good job of capturing his essence, and that of food banking. One added point may be of interest to your readers. The story mentions the Grandview Food Bank of Pasadena, the nation's second food bank. The story also mentions Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. Grandview became Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, now the largest food bank in the nation. All of us associated with Los Angeles Regional Foodbank thank the Grandview Foundation for helping Tony Collier (who worked at Grandview and had a special view of help for the needy)

A growing number of Los Angeles County's poorest families are going hungry or can't easily get healthy food, according to a report released Friday by the county Department of Public Health. Close to half a million households don't get enough to eat or struggle with limited access to nutritious food -- a 17% increase between 2002 and 2005. "It's ironic and sad that in this land of plenty, so many have to [make] do with so little," Dr.

Julie Harris, Brock Peters and Stephen Root, who are starring in "Driving Miss Daisy" at the Henry Fonda Theatre, will be driving over to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank this morning to lend their support to the "Brown Bag Network Program." They'll be on the Foodbank's loading dock to assist in distributing food to the needy.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley has proclaimed the week of Nov. 6 to 12 "Los Angeles Foodbank Week" in recognition of community efforts to provide food to the hungry and homeless. Bradley's proclamation coincides with "National Foodbank Week," which has been declared by the U.S. Congress and President Ronald Reagan. Bradley commended the work of the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, a nonprofit organization that distributes food through more than 450 charitable agencies.

Re "A Welfare Win/Win," editorial, Aug. 3: It really isn't "astonishing" that the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. report found that more children are going hungry as a result of welfare reform. More and more working families earning low wages are having difficulty making ends meet, which is why the county's new food stamp outreach program is so important. Having a job does not guarantee that you are able to put food on the table. Many low-income families continue to need assistance from charities; yet even with this help, some children and adults are still going hungry.

Congratulations go to Sonia Nazario for her thorough and insightful series regarding hunger in Southern California (Nov. 20-23). It's a painful and complex subject; she shed new light on it. Because the series will be a reference source for some time to come, I did want to comment on some matters: No food bank that I am aware of regularly charges handling fees for fresh produce and baked goods, which tend to be highly perishable and must...

Football fans attending the Los Angeles Raiders-Denver Broncos game Sunday at the Coliseum will be participating in the second GTE/Raiders Food Day program to benefit the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. Each person attending the game is asked to bring two cans of food, to be distributed later to more than 400 charities involved with the food bank. The nonprofit food bank, which feeds about 500,000 people a month through local agencies, received 7.6 tons of food from last year's GTE/Raiders

Your article "Charity Giving Outpaced by Rising Demands" (Dec. 25) accurately portrayed the need for food at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank during these tough times. However, one point made in the article should be emphasized. Individual giving, with respect to food and funds, makes a difference. Food company donations were largely responsible for our having distributed over 32 million pounds (not tons) of food by the end of November. Individuals helped us sustain our distribution through holiday food drives.

Re "Lights, Camera, Eviction," editorial, June 14 It is true that some in Hollywood loaned their star power to the effort to save the South Central farm. But that is not the story. The story is one built on the idea of providing food at a neighborhood level, about community support in an inhospitable place. This was not a story cooked up by Hollywood; it was built by good people, and Hollywood was attracted to it. For The Times to just throw up its hands and say developer Ralph Horowitz "is entirely within his rights" is cold and cynical.

As part of their contracts, convention caterers had to donate their leftovers to charity, so every day the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank received as much as 1.5 tons of goodies such as edible flowers and smoked salmon. "We wonder what they must think at the shelters," said food bank spokesman Darren Hoffman. "They don't see this kind of food that often. . . . Even I don't see it that often."

Re "A Welfare Win/Win," editorial, Aug. 3: It really isn't "astonishing" that the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. report found that more children are going hungry as a result of welfare reform. More and more working families earning low wages are having difficulty making ends meet, which is why the county's new food stamp outreach program is so important. Having a job does not guarantee that you are able to put food on the table. Many low-income families continue to need assistance from charities; yet even with this help, some children and adults are still going hungry.

The urban garden across the street from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank was developed after the 1992 riots to help the poor and homeless of South-Central Los Angeles become more self-sufficient. But managers of the 14-acre site say the mostly Latino gardeners who work the land may have taken the concept one entrepreneurial step too far: building illegal shanties and selling tacos, menudo and meat in the garden.

Your mention of the USDA food waste report by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman July 2 caught my eye. I have just returned from the hunger relief conference to which you refer. All of us who are involved in food banking were taken aback to learn that the amount of food wasted in the U.S. has gone up in the past 20 years from 20% to 27%. It is my understanding that the 20% figure included crop loss, which the 27% figure does not. That means that food waste is even worse now than the numbers show.

In Los Angeles County, one in three children lives in poverty, and that tugs hard at the hearts of Dorothy and Joe Hudson. Dorothy was 3, her sister a year older, when their father died. It was the Depression--a time of hardship, heartbreak and, in varied forms, beans. When Dorothy tells the story of her life, she begins with 1928, the year of her father's death. He worked as an "insurance man," so it was painfully ironic that when he died, he had no policy of his own.

As part of their contracts, convention caterers had to donate their leftovers to charity, so every day the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank received as much as 1.5 tons of goodies such as edible flowers and smoked salmon. "We wonder what they must think at the shelters," said food bank spokesman Darren Hoffman. "They don't see this kind of food that often. . . . Even I don't see it that often."

Congratulations go to Sonia Nazario for her thorough and insightful series regarding hunger in Southern California (Nov. 20-23). It's a painful and complex subject; she shed new light on it. Because the series will be a reference source for some time to come, I did want to comment on some matters: No food bank that I am aware of regularly charges handling fees for fresh produce and baked goods, which tend to be highly perishable and must...