Prior to the stay-at-home order, Diosmery Durán and her family were doing fine. Duránâs husband had his own business as a handyman. But when the pandemic hit, he lost nearly all his work overnight, and the family income disappeared. After paying the rent, utilities, cable and phone bills, there was little left. The only thing Durán could skimp on was food. She and her husband began getting up early to wait in the ever-increasing lines at local food pantries and schools for food.
âI just went, sometimes at 6 in the morning,â Durán said. Standing in lines for food has become a daily full-time job for many families in South L.A.
âIf I don’t eat sometimes it doesnât matter because when you have kids you always think about them,â Durán said. Across California 43 percent of all Latinx parents said they were forgoing some part of the family meal, according to new data from the Education Trust West. Diosmery Durán is one of them.
Families wait in line for food at Soledad Enrichment Action Resource Center in South Central Los Angeles. Food is given out on a first come first serve basis twice a week between 9 am and noon. In recent weeks the line starts at 6 am, according to Diosmery Duran, mother of two who waits in the line. (Courtesy of Diosmery Duran)
The pandemic has laid bare some of the contradiction in the countryâs food system. As farmers report rotting crops and dumping milk, hunger is growing. A Brookings Institute analysis found nationwide nearly one in five families with children under 12 are experiencing food insecurity. California parents are also struggling to feed their families, and food banks are seeing demand dramatically increase.
As some of the first data emerges, it paints a dire picture. The Education Trust West recently surveyed 600 families statewide with children under 5 years-old. The poll revealed that parents were skipping and reducing meals to compensate for a lack of steady income.
âParents are struggling with basic needs,â said Dr Elisha Smith Arriaga, executive director.
Each day, Durán or her husband wait in the various lines where food is distributed. She communicates constantly with other mothers as to which location is giving out milk, or diapers. And she often shares whatever the family gets. âWe all just try to help each other,â Durán said.
Durán realized she needed help putting in an application for government food assistance (CalFresh). While waiting in a food pantry line she heard that a local organization Community Services Unlimited (CSU) was providing assistance with applications, so she called. CSU has seen a nine-fold increase in calls for CalFresh application assistance.
While food pantries, nonprofit groups, churches and schools have become hubs for hungry families to receive food, CSU believes there is a better way to solve hunger issues. Heather Fenney, co-executive director of the organization said they are working to create more empowered food communities.
âAt a time like this, the need for our communities to have greater self-sufficiency around food is really critical,â Fenney said.
The organization was originally founded as part of the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1977. They work to upend the injustices of a food system steeped in charity with poor quality, and unhealthy foods. The organization works to incorporate the local community in food production and distribution. They imagine a world where locally grown organic produce is affordable and plentiful enough to feed the community.
Community Services Unlimited (CSU) has a Village Market Place store and cafe that also serves as a community space. The walls are adorned with memorabilia from the Black Panther Party, which founded CSU in 1977. (Deepa Fernandes/KQED )
The local food system begins with a mini urban farm on a corner block, close to the skyscrapers of downtown LA â on the edge of a community home to many low-income families of color.
Fenney is on her knees pulling out weeds that have sprung up after the April rains. âWe’ve got carrots growing,â she said pointing to a vibrant patch of green springy leaves. âWe planted these just before the stay at home orders went in place and we’re starting to harvest them now.â
In this green oasis in the middle of the city, a plethora of fruits and veggies are sprouting. âRight now what we’re focusing on is growing food that we can get out into the community,â Fenney said.
âWe’re growing collard greens, Swiss chard, lettuce, mustard greens, beets, carrots, a couple of different kinds of kale, lettuce mixes,â she said. There are tomatoes, cucumbers, leaks, eggplants, onions, and fennel. The farm also portends a tropical island, ringed with banana trees and fruits such as loquats.
A small urban farm, packed with two dozen rotating crops, sits in the middle of Los Angeles, on the border of the USC campus, on a main thoroughfare â Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard. (Deepa Fernandes/KQED )
The range of produce is hard to find in South L.A., even when thereâs not a pandemic. The area has been labeled a food desert, and community activism efforts over the years have brought small victories, like the opening of a Trader Joeâs near the USC campus which sells organic produce.
During the winter, CSUâs mini-farm buzzed with preschoolers, parents, and teens, all contributing and learning how to grow food. But since the pandemic, the organization has moved quickly to help families grow food at home.
âWhat we focus on is showing very simple, affordable methods for growing food in whatever kind of space,â Fenney said, âa patio, a stairwell, a little plot of dirt, anything you have.â
Neelam Sharma, co-executive director, said the Panther Partyâs ideas still guide what they do today. Unlike food pantries and churches, Sharma said it is not a social service organization.
âService programs build no resiliency, they build no sustainability in communities,â Sharma said. âThey build no skills. They build no jobs. They don’t create anything permanent that serves that community.â
When the Black Panthers served free breakfast to children, there was a larger justice seeking goal, Sharma said. âThe survival programs were a way of organizing people, they were a way of really engaging with people and pointing out all the failures in a system that had so much money, but where that money was really failing [to reach] ordinary people in the country.â
Lining up for food handouts day after day, and going from a church to a school just to get enough food can be exhausting and humiliating, she said. âThere’s a deeply problematic power structure in that relationship,â Sharma said.
However, hunger is spreading quickly in the South L.A. community, and across the state. âCompared with the same period last year, we’ve seen a 9 times increase in the numbers of people coming to us for assistance with purchasing food,â Sharma said.
Yet here, for a donated bag of food, thereâs no lining up â the organization delivers directly to homes in need.
The organization also has an organic market and cafe called The Village Market Place, where they sell their own produce. Itâs like a mini-Whole Foods, only the walls are adorned with Black Panther and Brown Beret posters. The store and cafe had to close when the stay-at-home orders were issued, but they now take orders over the phone and make same-day deliveries with groceries and produce.
To help meet the growing demand, they purchase organic produce from small farms across Southern California.
The Village Market Place gives families on CalFresh half off the sticker price as part of the philosophy of allowing low-cost options for all families who want organic produce. Those who can afford it help subsidize those who canât.
Itâs another small way of bringing dignity to the hungry, and equity to the food system.
Statewide Resources for Food Assistance
Onwardca.org has a directory for finding local assistance.
For more information on Community Services Unlimited, see CSUinc.org and for assistance with CalFresh (aka Food Stamps) applications, call 213-746-1216 or email calfresh@csuinc.org.
CalFresh is for people with low-income who meet federal income eligibility rules.
Bay Area Resources
KQED’s guide to Where to Get Free School Lunch in the Bay Area
Additional resources for paying bills can be found here.
Deepa Fernandes is a reporting fellow at Pacific Oaks College, which is funded in part by First 5 LA.
Copyright 2020 KQED