L.A. Program Routes It to Soup Kitchens : Unsalable Produce Feeds the Hungry

Strawberries that aren’t shaped quite right and bananas that aren’t the right shade of yellow are finding their way to the tables of soup kitchens through a Los Angeles charity program that donates food good enough to eat but not good enough to sell.

Merchants at downtown’s wholesale produce market used to throw away boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables they could not sell because the produce was not quite fresh or pretty enough.

Now they donate them to the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market Charitable Distribution Facility, which hands them out to church and volunteer groups that often cook them and serve them the same day.

Serves 164 Groups

The innovative program, conceived by veteran produce man Mickey Weiss, serves 164 charity groups, including the Midnight Mission, LIFE, Salvation Army, City of Hope and a number of church groups.

“It gives them all kinds of fresh produce all year,” said Dick Mount, executive vice president of the Associated Produce Dealers & Brokers of Los Angeles Inc.

The facility started May 14, 1987, with a $25,000 grant from the Edna and Mickey Weiss Charitable Foundation to help turn otherwise wasted food into meals.

The program cost $37,500 in 1987, but this year is expected to cost $30,000, Weiss said.

“It was a simple idea. . . . It costs the taxpayer nothing and industry is working with government to produce it,” Weiss told the City Council recently when he was honored with a proclamation for his efforts.

Worth About $2 1/2 Million

In its first year of operation, the facility handed out an average of 44 tons of produce a week--nearly 2,298 tons, worth an estimated $2.54 million, county agriculture officials said.

Jean Olivis, director of operations for LIFE (Love Is Feeding Everyone), said her group is glad to get fresh vegetables to supply to soup kitchens and church groups that feed the hungry, as an alternative to canned foods.

“In terms of diet, we know that people in low-income areas are receiving produce that is not loaded with additives and preservatives,” she said. “The whole basis of the LIFE organization is to provide a nutritional product.”

The food is donated “as long as the product is edible,” Mount said. “It may not be salable because it may not meet certain standards.”

While it may not meet standards of appearance or size that would allow it to be sold in a supermarket, the food is still tasty and safe to eat, Mount said.

Sales Restrictions

“There are certain restrictions on selling food,” said Weiss, a 72-year-old wholesaler at Brostoff-Celle Inc.

For example, strawberries that have big tops but tiny lower halves cannot be sold because customers would be deceived about what they are getting, Weiss said.

The same goes for bananas that are already ripe at the wholesale mart. By the time they get out on the shelves at a supermarket, they will be overripe, he said.

“If it’s ripe it’s not salable because no market is going to buy it fully ripe,” he said.

Inspector Checks Food

Although they are unattractive to buyers for supermarkets, the imperfect fruits and vegetables, “everything from apples to zucchini,” Weiss said, help agencies feed hundreds of hungry families each day. A county agriculture inspector checks the food to ensure that it is edible.