During the pandemic, Los Angeles County and its nonprofit partners supplied food and meals to an expanding number of residents who couldn’t afford groceries, often went without food or were anxious about how they’d feed their families.
While the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, the issue of hunger and food insecurity in the county has not gone away. In fact, statistics show the problem has gotten worse.
Today, about one million county households are food insecure, up from 553,000 households in 2021, according to research from the USC Dornsife Public Exchange. The report says that among low-income households of color, not having enough food to eat “is the worst it has been in 10 years.”
“The worst of the pandemic is behind us, but hunger and food insecurity aren’t,” said Fourth District Supervisor and board chair Janice Hahn in a prepared statement.
For these reasons, the board voted unanimously last week to establish an L.A. County Office of Food Equity, to better connect county social service departments and free food programs with state and federal food assistance. The new department aims to create more farmer’s markets, food co-ops and urban farms — especially in areas known as fresh food deserts.
Not having enough to eat, and not having access to healthy foods occurs predominantly in these geographic areas of the county: Antelope Valley, East Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles unincorporated areas and South Los Angeles neighborhoods, the county reported.
Using a plan developed by the L.A. County Food Equity Roundtable, the new county department will work toward the following goals: removing roadblocks that prevent urban farms from springing up in residential communities through zoning changes; giving a hand to local food entrepreneurs; providing easier access to nonprofit and government food assistance programs; and reducing the amount of food wasted by adding more food recovery/distribution sites.
Regarding access to food…
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