Hunger Action Los Angeles

Market match:hunger Action la's chief program 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 2022, there are 22 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 with 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, main street marketplace, southland farmers market association, fm & lce, pasadena farmers market, wellington square farmers market, providence health, California clean greens association.) In late 2022, 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. From october through december 2021 we also received sufficient funding to increase the daily maximum per customer from $10 to $15. In 2022 however we had to reduce the maximum per customer back to $10. Hala funded $740,110 in market match transactions in 2022. There were 3,720 new customers to the program and a total of 67,608 transactions altogether. The customers spent $1,638,485 of their calfresh benefits to obtain the matching amount, meaning a total of $2,378,595 was spent by them on fruits and vegetables benefitting 285 local farmers as well as their households with nutritious food. There were 30 participating markets by december 2022 and another 5 awaiting the approval process to participate. Wic plus and senior plus: 3,139 wic participants and 462 senior participants were provided a total of $67,381 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 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.

Calfresh outreach (baila):hunger Action la's calfresh team of karen giron and chelsea moon pre-screened 770 households for calfresh eligibility, enrolled 165 into the calfresh program and had follow ups scheduled with 97 others, as of the end of 2022. Activites also included :- preparation of an online inquiry form for those interested in calfresh- data collection for project baila- 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.

Covid 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 continued throughout 2021 and 2022. For most of 2022 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. Hala cut out the purchase of other prepared meals from restaurants with whom we had partnered in 2021, due partly to those restaurants emphasis on reviving their business after the downtime of the pandemic and their inability to offer a competitive price any longer for the same reason. Hala also began asking participants if they could transport themselves to the food distribution site themselves and pick up the food, to reduce the number of people needing an actual home delivery, since the number of volunteers able to drive was diminished by peoples' return to work in 2022 after the lockdowns had subsided. Many were able to do so. In 2022, doordash reached out to Hunger Action la to see if they could assist via a partnership in which they would deliver the meals for us. This saved the program as the number of volunteer drivers had diminished. Doordash continued this service for free through the end of 2022 although they notified hala that beginning at some point in 2023 they would need to begin charging for the meals. Hala agreed to extend the contract into that time period. Hala is currently serving 140 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. The participants consisted in a typical week of 25 large families requiring larger amounts of uncooked groceries; 75 single individuals, mostly seniors, who received smaller allotments than the families; and during 2022, up to 40 participants who for various reasons required prepared meals rather than uncooked groceries. This number was eventually reduced to about 15 due to cost saving measures. In 2022 we operated the program for 47 weeks out of the year. As in 2021, about 61,100 pounds of food was donated (an estimate based on 130 bags per week x 10 lbs of food x 47 weeks.) The value of the food is around $397,150 based on average of about $6.50 per lb. Volunteers logged in about 2,256 hours and doordash provided

Policy advocacy: state policy: hala played a major part in organizing hybrid remote/in-person events in sacramento for advocates to push for food4all (expansion of calfresh program to immigrants); increased funding for food banks to purchase from local farmers; and speeding up the timeline to increase ssi benefits for seniors and people with disabilities. These initiatives succeeded, although several others did not. The events involved over 24 organizations from around the state and nearly 100 grassroots participants. 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. We also received strong support from the american heart association to conduct advocacy at the county level to win funding for snap incentive programs (such as market match, which we operate, but extending to a wider range of sites including brick and mortar stores). We succeeded in winning an additional $1 million from arpa funds and a county board motion that calls for exploration of housing the program under the county department of public social services. This motion occurred in november of 2022, on the date of declaration of national diabetes month, the county board of supervisors instructed departments to "explore strategies for making the market match program sustainable, including implementation of the program in alignment with other nutrition assistance programs such as calfresh and working with the department of public social services to consider housing market match under its administration and programs;" in addition, we won an additional $1 million in funding, again through the american rescue plan (the source of the first allocation of $2 million which began to be spent in october 2022.) This was less than what we had fought for, but still secured county involvement for at least another year (and in light of the above achievement, for an indefinite period.) Activities included:- weekly strategy meetings- trainings for low income residents- research and consultation with the american heart association- simple remote advocacy activities especially petitions, social media campaigns and campaigns to urge phone calls and emails to county supervisors- remotely-conducted legislative visits with deputies of Los Angeles county's five supervisors- collection of data to support our request to the county- creation of educational materials including flyers and slide presentations on the subject

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.