MAKING A DIFFERENCE : A Daily Helping of Fresh Produce For LA’s Poor

California is one of the world’s top producers of fruits and vegetables, but thousands of low-income people in the greater Los Angeles area don’t get enough fresh produce in their diets. The Los Angeles Charitable Food Distribution Facility has helped to remedy this situation by moving more than 25 million pounds of donated produce annually to organizations that feed the region’s poor. The eight-year-old effort uses no taxpayer money--an approach that has spurred similar programs around the country and abroad. Here’s a look at a day in the life the downtown produce market’s distribution facility and those who make it work.

FROM WHOLESALER TO THE HUNGRY

2 a.m. Produce begins to arrive at downtown produce market. Inspectors “red-tag” any that is unsellable.

7-10 a.m. Wholesalers take edible, unsellable “red-tagged” and surplus produce to the Charitable Distribution Facility dock operated by World Opportunities International.

7:30 a.m.-1:30 a.m. More than 50 registered charity, church and food pantry vehicles pick up produce.

2 p.m. WOI workers truck remaining produce to food pantries or to its Hollywood facilities for distribution or storage.

3 p.m. WOI worker calls growers in Oxnard, Ventura and Bakersfield to find out if they have any excess produce--usually lettuce, celery and cabbage. If so, the produce is picked up the next morning and trucked back to Los Angeles for distribution.

Each afternoon Thousands of pounds of underripe, overripe, edible but unsellable produce are distributed to poor and hungry people throughout the area. WOI worker calls growers in Oxnard, Ventura and Bakersfield to find out if they have any excess produce--usually lettuce, celery and cabbage. If so the produce is picked up the next morning and trucked back to Los Angeles for distribution

“The produce I pick up is very significant to the elderly people we feed.”--Wilma Casaclang, below, a volunteer who uses her own car to pick up produce for distribution at the Federation of Filipino American Assns. in Long Beach.

WHO MADE IT WORK AND KEEPS IT GOING?

THE IDEA CHAMPION AND CARETAKER: Mickey Weiss, retired produce wholesaler World Opportunities International used his resources and contacts to launch and initially funded the charitable distribution facility and turned over day-to-day responsibilities to World Opportunities International, a non-profit support group.

THE CATALYST AND FACILITATORS: The Los Angeles County Department of Agriculture promoted the facility to produce whole saleers and assigned an on-site inspector to the facility in its early days. Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market Assn. members and others bring produce to the distribution dock every business day and have donated 2,800 square feet od space, a loading dock, dumpster, maintenance costs, an office and equipment. THE DISSEMINATORS; USC School of Medicine academics Peter Clark and Susan Evans and their colleagues studied Los Angeles’ distribution facility and work with other cities to help them invent their own programs. They’ve assisted 18 U.S. cities and visited Australia and Canada to help efforts there.

THE BENEFICIARIES: Wholesalers save on dumping costs ($287 per dumspter) and take a tax deduction on donated produce while low-income people receive fresh fruit and vegetables at more than 400 locations throughout greater Los Angeles at no cost to taxpayers. BOTTOM LINE: Each month 2.5 million pounds of produce is distributed by the Charitable Distribution Facility. For example, that much lettuce would fill a 45’ truck trailer 63 times.

TO GET INVOLVED

Call Mickey Weiss at (310) 550-1111 for information about Los Angeles’ Charitable Distribution Facility. If you’re interested in initiating a charitable distribution program in your city call Susan Evans and Peter Clark at (818) 457-4110.