Completing the Flow of Food : Why should any child go to bed hungry in Los Angeles?

Thousands of children go to bed ravenous in South Los Angeles. They get up hungry and they go to school hungry. Their parents do not have enough money to buy food. Nightfall brings no relief.

Poverty virtually starves 27% of the residents of one neighborhood covered by a new UCLA study. They go hungry an average of five days a month despite the existence of pantries, soup kitchens and emergency programs. The food giveaways are overwhelmed. A huge rise in demand has forced the programs to reject one out of four families and reduce the groceries given to those lucky enough to get help.

Better planning could alleviate this crisis. The UCLA researchers call for a food council to coordinate resources. One hopes this is something Mayor-elect Richard Riordan, with his many business contacts, will take up.

A critical shortage of supermarkets in inner-city neighborhoods doesn’t help. Because most chains fled South-Central Los Angeles after the Watts riots in 1965, shoppers who don’t own cars are forced to take buses to get to the best bargains or to spend more money at expensive neighborhood markets. Many grocery chains are returning or expanding in the inner city in the wake of the 1992 riots. The new stores will improve access to high-quality, better-priced food. Los Angeles can learn from coordinated approaches in Toronto and in Hartford, Conn. Those cities have developed urban gardening programs, food co-ops and tax incentives to lure grocery chains to poor neighborhoods.

In a nation as rich as America--a country in which crops often rot in fields--no one should go hungry. It’s really that simple.