The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank this week kicked off its 10th Annual Summer Meal Program. The program, which has nearly doubled in size in the past three years, provides access to nutritious meals for disadvantaged children. It will run until school resumes, giving lunches to children who would normally have their afternoon meal at school, according to a recent press release.
The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has worked for 42 years to gather resources to eliminate hunger in the community.
“During the summer months, demand for food assistance increases as children do not have access to school meal programs,” explains Susan Acker, manager of communications of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.
Their vision is to ensure that no one in Los Angeles County goes hungry; the organization provided food to more than 280,000 people monthly, and distributed 59 million pounds of food in 2014. In addition, 97 percent of the money raised and donated goes directly to programs, according to the L.A. Food Bank website.
The 2015 program will serve more than 6,000 meals a day from more than 100 distribution sites including the Boys and Girls Club, community centers, and summer school locations. It reaches the children most in need during the summer, when volunteers and donations are at their lowest. Annually, the L.A. Food Bank has 27,000 volunteers, which it distributes through a network of more than 690 partner agencies.
“Hunger does not take a vacation,” added Acker. “We are grateful for the support we receive that makes it possible to provide summer meals to more than 6,000 children every weekday.”
The L.A. Food Bank was named “Nonprofit Organization of the Year” by the L.A. Business Journal in 2013.
