Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer
When people living below the poverty level go to an organization that gives away free food, arguably the last thing they want to hear is, “Sorry, we are all out— come back another time.” The truth is, however, that during times of economic recession, many such organizations and shelters must scramble for supplies, and sometimes they do run out.
Food Finders, a nonprofit group based in Signal Hill, exists to keep those organizations and shelters adequately supplied.
Diana Lara, vice president of operations, stressed that individuals and families cannot get food directly from Food Finders. “We don’t do that, but we provide them with lists of places where they can get food, based on their ZIP code,” she said.
Lara explained that most people that phone asking for assistance are referred to organizations that get a good portion of their supplies from Food Finders. “We are nondenominational so we give food to any agency that provides food to individuals as long as they have a valid nonprofit status,” she said. “Currently, we supply food to churches, food pantries, senior living agencies, and a variety of shelters.”
“Our drivers do a tremendous job, but most of the day-to-day pickups are handled by an amazing network of about 150 volunteers,” Lara said. “They go out seven days a week in their own vehicles and do the same thing that our truck drivers do, only on a smaller scale.” She added that when a person volunteers to do that, Food Finders makes every effort to keep the places of donation and delivery as close to the volunteer’s home as possible to make it convenient for them.
Lara also noted that except for nonperishable items like coffee or crackers, Food Finders rarely stores food. “We try to always deliver food directly to the agencies that give it to people,” she said. “We also try to stage it so that if an organization is going to distribute food on Friday, we deliver it to them on Thursday or Friday morning so that it is as fresh as possible.”
Counting Lara and Executive Director Patti Larson, Food Finders has seven paid staff members. “Our annual budget— which goes to salaries, vehicle costs, rent and other overhead— is $500,000,” Lara said, adding that Food Finders picks up and delivers $10.5 million worth of food annually. “Our budget comes from federal grants and donations from corporations and caring individuals,” she said.
Food Finders conducts food drives throughout the year, to encourage individuals, families and businesses to donate as much food as possible. During the drives, Food Finders staff takes buckets and containers to businesses acting as collection sites for donated food.
The largest drive of the year starts a few weeks before Thanksgiving and runs to the end of the year. “We put our buckets and containers in various businesses and even in all of the Long Beach branch libraries,” Lara said. “During that time, we keep collecting food from drop-off locations and delivering it, but we do use our small warehouse in this building to store some of that food for a short time.”
Lara added that people can always drop food off at the Food Finders headquarters or they can phone and ask for someone to pick up the food from their home. “They can also get their place of employment to have a food drive, and we will pick up the food from there,” she said.
Lara noted that she wishes the level of donations collected during the end-of-the-year food drive remained the same throughout the year. “We would love to be able to have that kind of food drive all year long,” she said. “People love to donate food during the holidays, but there are always low-income people who need food every day of the year.”
She explained that Food Finders gets calls every day from churches and other nonprofit groups that need help feeding hungry people. “But we are not able to bring on new recipients unless we get new donors,” she said. “We hate to put agencies on our waiting list because we do not have food to give them.”
Larson added that she researched local hunger statistics recently and found that about 20 percent of Long Beach’s population lives at or below poverty income. “That’s one out of every five people, and 32 percent of those people are children,” she said. “So we have kids who are going to school, but don’t have enough food to eat.” She added that malnutrition negatively affects a child’s ability to learn, as well as his or her emotional development.
Lara explained that Food Finders rescues seven million pounds of food a year, but in the Los Angeles area alone, seven million more pounds of good, edible food ends up in landfills. “There is enough food to feed everybody, if everybody just cared enough to donate the food that they are throwing away,” she said.
Lara said one way to change that is for employees that work for businesses that throw away food to become food-rescue advocates. “They can ask their employers to contact us, and we will be glad to talk to them and explain how donating food is good for the company and good for the agencies that need it,” she said. “People can also ask their employers to host food drives.”
Food Finders is located at 2301 East 28th Street in Signal Hill
This article is the second in a two-part series.
More Information
(562) 598-3003
foodfinders.org
facebook.com/foodfinders
