Food Is Gift of LIFE for Families in Need

For needy families such as the Briones, donations of food by LIFE (Love Is Feeding Everyone) volunteers can mean the difference between eating and not eating. Rita Briones, above, talks with her daughter Blanca as she prepares a meal of macaroni, which her son Hector, 1, polishes off at left. Ten people are living in the San Fernando Valley apartment.

Founded in 1983 by actors Dennis Weaver, Valerie Harper and others concerned for the hungry, LIFE feeds about 60,000 people each week--providing them with canned, packaged and fresh produce collected from supermarkets and private donations.

By dawn, work begins each day to move food from a Huntington Park warehouse to kitchen tables across the county. LIFE distribution centers also are located in East Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Below left, a LIFE truck is filled with food for the hungry in East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.

LIFE workers solicit donations from wholesalers at the Los Angeles Produce Mart and seek donations of dry and canned goods from area businesses and grocers. Collection stands, such as the one below in Santa Monica, also are set up outside supermarkets.