Food for Thought: Los Angeles Regional Foodbank

After December's bake sale, the Eat My Blog planning committee delivered the check to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank and toured the facilities to see how the money would be used.

As you may have heard by now, this Saturday’s bake sale will be an epic gathering of generous LA food lovers, with thousands, and we mean thousands, of brownies, cakes, candies, pies and more for sale. You’ll find good food, but there’s also the good cause behind all of our efforts.

All of our proceeds go directly to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, which means that buying a cupcake will not only make your belly happy, but it will make others’ bellies happy as well. It’s a win-win situation! Each dollar donated allows the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank to provide $5 of food to the community, so picking up a few dollars’ worth of home-baked goodies for your weekend noshings will help feed a whole bunch of your fellow Angelenos.

Here are some ways that the Foodbank helps our community, and here are some ways you can help between bake sales:

Food donations:

• The Foodbank obtains millions of pounds of surplus food that would otherwise go to waste and channels it to 900 member agency sites in LA
• 54 million pounds of food were distributed in LA County last year
• Outreach includes the BackPack Program, which provides school-age kids with a backpack full of food for the weekend
• The Foodbank accepts dry, shelf-stable, refrigerated and frozen food items, prepared foods, foodservice items and personal care and cleaning products. Hold a food drive or find one in your area.

Monetary donations:

• Every dollar donated provides $ 5 worth of food for the community
• A donation to the Emergency Food Fund helps the Foodbank purchase rarely donated but much-needed items for charities like dry milk, baby food, and canned fruits and vegetables
• Hold a virtual food drive to raise funds for the Foodbank’s many programs and needs

Volunteering:

• In 2009, 20,000 volunteers contributed over 120,000 hours of service
• Volunteers are needed to sort food in the warehouse, to train interested individuals in the work experience program, and at special events and food drive. Check out the current volunteer opportunities.