The driving force behind Long Beach Community Table’s mission—to help feed the Long Beach community—is compassion.
“It’s a lot of like-minded people that just want to see the people in their communities—that haven’t necessarily started with the same set of opportunities as other people—[thrive],” Executive Director Kristen Cox said of the nonprofit.
Since its inception in 2018, the mutual aid cooperative’s goal has been to nourish those in need and bring food to Long Beach’s food deserts.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food deserts as areas that don’t have fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets and providers of healthy food.
According to 2015 data from USDA’s Economic Research Service Atlas, Central and North Long Beach are considered food deserts and data from 2019 added parts of West Long Beach.
And it was eight parks in those underserved neighborhoods that Cox and a group of volunteers visited at the nonprofit’s inception, serving anywhere from 75 to 100 people per park.
What started as clothes and produce deliveries in Cox’s van in 2018 has turned into a steady mobile weekend distribution at five to six parks in the nonprofit’s modified school bus.
The number of people served dwindled, Cox said, thanks in part to programs like Project Room Key. The nonprofit currently distributes food to over 300 people at parks per weekend, including Drake Park.
The nonprofit also operates a pantry out of its warehouse in Bellflower—donated by Catalyst Cannabis—and is one of the sources that nourishes 3,000 people a week and distributes approximately 30,000 pounds of food, Cox noted.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pantry opened to the public four days a week, and allows the public to pick items ranging from fresh produce to canned goods.
Intent on helping as many people as the organization could, Cox and her team also started doing home deliveries for homebound individuals who reached out to the nonprofit.
What once was a dozen deliveries a week eventually reached 1,000 at the height of COVID, Cox said.
“My husband and I would sometimes be out delivering until like 11 o’clock,” she said, noting that the number has gone down to 450 deliveries a week taking place on Sundays.
For Cox, starting Long Beach Community Table came out of her political involvement in 2016 where, along with colleagues, she took part in Standing Rock protests and extended aid to hurricane victims.
“Eventually, we were like, ‘Why don’t we just do something in Long Beach? There’s plenty of need right here,’” she said.
Some of the community’s need for fresh food was addressed through gardens that the organization has built and sustained around the city in private yards. The food is later used in distributions.
According to Cox, the pandemic impacted their garden program, with fewer volunteers willing to go out and maintain the gardens, but a brainstorming meeting is taking place on Monday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. at Aurora Theatre to discuss its future.
Other food for the pantry and distributions comes from partnerships with Food Finders, Southern California Food Bank, LA Regional Food Bank and a “long list” of partners.
“The idea is to have the community come in and help,” Cox said of nonprofit’s concept of community mutually sustaining each other.
A distinguishing factor of the nonprofit is that some of the volunteers are also recipients, Cox said. Oftentimes people who received aid at city parks turn around and distribute food to others in need.
For Long Beach Community Table, the aid doesn’t stop at providing nourishment. It also helps the community become “more self-sustaining.”
According to Cox, part of its mission is to teach the value of nutrition.
“Now you have all the fresh produce, what are you going to do with it?” Cox said, noting that information on recipes, canning, preservation and even financial literacy is provided.
One of the nonprofit’s next goals is to provide showers and laundry for the community, Cox said, but that is contingent on funding.
“We are lucky because we have a great group of people,” Cox said of the cooperative. “I do love what I’m doing, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Long Beach Community Table’s pantry is located at 9038 Artesia Blvd in Bellflower. It is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 2 p.m.
To learn more about Long Beach Community Table visit their website here. To donate to their Giving Tuesday fundraiser through December visit this link.
