It is I, the E! Online Answer B!tch! Blogging in an effort to help end hunger in my home city?

Lo, you may ask, lo, how can you be in two places at once, Answer B!tch? How can you be on the intertubes at E! Online AND at the blog for Fed Up With Hunger? It’s not easy, I’ll tell you. It’s darned hard, in fact. But there’s no place I’d rather be than right here.

Why? The problem of hunger in my own beloved town of Los Angeles has become a passion of mine. I’m glad that so many celebrities support charities, and have taken on urgent crises around the planet; in fact, many of the stars I cover for E! Online have adopted hunger as their charity of choice, particularly overseas. However, right here, in one of the biggest, most blessed and beautiful cities on Earth, 1 million people face hunger every single night. And 25% of all children in LA are food insecure.

The problem is more nuanced than you might think; canned food drives are terrific, and I encourage you to start one as, say, part of a New Years resolution to help your own neighbors in need. Fed Up With Hunger is always open to any help anyone can offer. But you may be shocked to learn just how hard it is for some people in Los Angeles to find nutritious options for their children — even those who have a little money. In East Los Angeles, an assessment by the East L.A. Community Corporation — also known as the ELACC — identified one supermarket for almost 90,000 residents in the Boyle Heights area, or more than four times lower than the average for Los Angeles County. What does that mean? Well, if you can’t get to a supermarket, you’re often left with only fast food or prepackaged options for your meals. No fresh fruit or vegetables — the basic stuff that anyone needs to stay healthy and well fed. Isn’t it everyone’s right to be not only fed, but fed properly and with good nutrition? Burgers and Twinkies are fun to eat, but, let’s face it. They’re not real food.

It doesn’t end there. Of the nearly 1,300 food establishments in South and Central Los Angeles, nearly 30% are fast food restaurants, 22% as convenience or liquor stores, and less than 2% as full service food markets.  The Community Health Council’s South Los Angeles Health Equity Scorecard has found that in South Los Angeles, there were 8.51 liquor stores per square mile, compared to 1.56 in Los Angeles County. So again, let me make that clear: If you live in a poor or disenfranchised portion of Los Angeles, you have roughly eight times more liquor stores in your area, but you have to work — hard — just to find a fresh floret of broccoli or a real banana.

I am lucky enough that I can take such foods for granted. I have not one, but, three full-service supermarkets within walking distance of my house. Through FUWH, I’ve learned that so many Angelenos don’t even have one. How can we lecture people about obesity rates or healthy options for kids if we can’t even point them to a place where they can get the right building blocks for our bodies? It’s hypocritical, and it isn’t right.

I’ll be honest. I could sit here and get all self-righteous about how Ralphs or Pavilions needs to get on the stick and build more supermarkets in more places, but I know it’s not that simple. But maybe, just by being aware of how uneven the system really is — right here in Los Angeles — we can get more people to focus on the problem, people who can help. It’s a small step. But every little bit counts.

Students at UCLA Hillel are rolling up their sleeves and joining the fight against hunger in Los Angeles. Hillel is a student organization whose mission is to enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may give back to the Jewish people and the world.  One way Hillel students give back is though tzedek, which is Hebrew for “social justice.“ Every Hillel chapter has a tzedek chair who organizes service events, helping to teach students that an important part of being a community is to take care of the less fortunate.

In honor of Thanksgiving, UCLA Hillel’s hunger-project-in-charge Desiree Soleymani organized a PB&J Challenge Night.  Fifteen students came together to make as many as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as they could for the hungry in our community.  In their tzedek inspired zeal, they made over 200 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Hillel donated the sandwiches to the food recovery organization Angel Harvest, which distributed them to homeless people living in the West Hollywood area.

During the event, the students watched videos from the Fed Up with Hunger website and discussed future events for the upcoming year. UCLA Hillel will hold additional Fed Up With Hunger themed events in the coming year, including more PB&J Challenge Nights and a volunteer day at a soup kitchen.  They also plan to launch an initiative to get UCLA to donate surplus food from campus dining facilities to food aid providers.

Fed Up With Hunger applauds UCLA Hillel’s efforts to fight food insecurity in Los Angeles!  We here at Fed Up With Hunger are forming a broad coalition of student groups working against hunger.  If you’re a student activist from any campus organization, whether faith or cause based,  and you want to get involved with Fed Up With Hunger, e-mail me at ebraun@jewishla.org.  I’ll be happy to help your group find it’s place in the Fed Up With Hunger campaign!

(excerpted from L.A. Now/LATimes)

More than 1 million low-income California children who receive for free or reduced-price school lunches do not get breakfast at school even though they would qualify, and about a fifth of the schools in the state do not even offer breakfast, according to two reports from the Food Research and Action Center.

California ranked 33rd in low-income-student participation in the School Breakfast Program for 2008-09, the same ranking it received a year earlier. In terms of the number of schools that offer breakfast, California’s ranking fell from 35th to 40th, the Washington-based group said.

In the 2008-09 school year, 8,756 schools that took part in the National School Lunch Program also offered breakfast, compared with 8,922 schools the previous year. Nationally, fewer than half of the eligible children receive breakfast at school, according to the reports released Monday.

In 2008-09, 8.8 million children took part in the breakfast program on an average day; the lunch program served 18.9 million children.

“The program is seriously underutilized,” center president James Weill said Monday.

Read the rest of the article>>

By Evangeline Heath

After watching Food Inc. and learning how big Agri-business has consumers by the brussels sprouts, my day spent volunteering with Garden School Foundation was a much needed ray of sunshine.

My husband and I pulled into the 24th Street Elementary School’s parking lot bright and early on Saturday morning not knowing what to expect. Located right alongside the Western Ave. exit on the notoriously traffic-laden 10 freeway in the West Adams district of Los Angeles, it certainly seemed like an unlikely place for a garden.

Walking onto the grounds, however, we soon found ourselves in a lush, green landscape. Classrooms surrounded a charming garden courtyard beneath a giant weeping willow. This was the school’s initial “test garden.” It’s now being used as an inter-curricular learning area. Two large banners boasted “Outdoor Classroom” and “Good Eats”.

Read more »

The World Food Programme is hoping a billion people online will help the billion hungry. CNN reports:

“When you reap the harvest of your college campus, do not reap to the very edges of your dining hall…” – Studenticus 19:9

Dorm food is not just for students anymore.  The Occidental College chapter of Circle K, a national collegiate community service organization, has partnered with Occidental’s campus dining facilities to deliver quality, un-served food to Midnight Mission, a major provider of emergency food to the needy living on Skid Row.  Adriana Fukuzato, president of the Circle K chapter, says that, “Circle K is dedicated to service and that means being leaders in the community. This is not only a service to Occidental but to Midnight Mission as well…. we are more than happy to donate the food as well as our time to such a wonderful organization.”

Circle K’s efforts are vital at a time when the ranks of the hungry and food insecure are burgeoning.  The additional need is straining emergency food providers like Midnight Mission.  The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, the biggest player in Los Angeles’ charitable food distribution network, recently reported that demand at the food pantries they serve has increased by 34% since 2008.  More than ever, we need to make efficient use of our food to feed the hungry in our community.

Tragically, Americans waste a tremendous amount of food. According to a recent USDA study[1], about 1400 calories of food is wasted per person per day, amounting to over 150 trillion calories per year!

Read more »

Nina Corbett with final product, canned pears

By Evangeline Heath

As a native Angelino, I’m used to seeing trees sitting in yards pregnant with fruit that is never picked. Many home-owners don’t know what to do with all they produce and don’t have time harvest.  So the fruit dangles, like so many dusty Christmas ornaments, rotting away.

Food Forward is a new organization with a juicy idea to solve this problem. They organize “Fruit Picks” in residential neighborhoods and then donate the bounty to food banks.

They’ve collected over 60,649 pounds of fruit in 2009.  Beyond giving it to those in need, Food Forward is looking at other ways to preserve their produce.  Like canning.

On a Sunday afternoon, my husband and I were lucky enough to participate in Food Forward’s first canning workshop.  Kevin West of the savingtheseason.com and Nina Corbett of putsup.com were generous enough to donate their time and teach about twenty Food Forward volunteers the canning basics in the M.E.N.D Poverty kitchen in Pacoima.

M.E.N.D (Meeting Each Need With Dignity) is one of the largest poverty agencies in the Valley, serving over 368,969 people.

The canning process is straightforward and pleasing in its Zen-like repetition.  First peel the fruit, chop it, poach it, then heat the jars, fill them, seal them, boil them, cool them, and eventually eat them.

With 240 jars, 10 crates of pears, and 7 huge pots to work with, we split into groups and got to work. I grabbed a peeler with the dullest blade I’ve ever used and picked a pear to peel (say that three times fast).

Read more »

How innovative markets serve the needs of low-income customers
By Benjamin Fried
(excerpted from Project for Public Spaces)

Toronto, Ontario - One method to make markets more accessible is to bring them closer to customers. That’s what a Toronto organization called FoodShare accomplished by setting up small produce stands called “Good Food Markets” in low-income neighborhoods throughout the city.

“Most of the farmers markets [in Toronto] are based in middle- and upper-income communities,” said Angela ElzingaCheng of FoodShare, adding that the cost of traveling across town to get fresh food is “very expensive for low-income communities.”

To reduce those costs, FoodShare launched the first Good Food Markets in 2005. That summer there were two locations. This year there are twelve.

A big key to FoodShare’s success has been community partnerships. The markets are located in neighborhood institutions like health clinics and community centers. FoodShare staff shows how to set up the stands and sell the produce, and the neighborhood partners organize the rest. It’s been a winning strategy for everyone involved.

St. Margaret’s-in-the-Pines Church hosts the East Scarborough Community Market, which includes a Good Food Market and stalls run by several neighborhood organizations.

“People are extremely excited to have this market atmosphere, and the market organizers are building relationships with people,” said ElzingaCheng. “The markets are doorways to other things. People start accessing other resources.”

The markets serve as vehicles for Placemaking in these community institutions, sparking new activity that draws people together. At St. Margaret’s-in-the-Pines Church, for instance, five community organizations have combined a Good Food Market with craft vendors, music, children’s activities, and booths for local organizations, creating a vibrant public space. Another partner, the Flemingdon Community Health Center, has used a Good Food Market as a venue to support five women embarking on prepared food and catering businesses, who sell their products at the market site.

ElzingaCheng believes the emphasis on public space at each market site is integral to its success. When FoodShare sets up a new Good Food Market, she shares Placemaking principles and expertise with the partner organizations that host it.

“When you look at the issue of food access,” she said, “the best way to address it is through culturally appropriate food, lower transportation costs, and vibrant public spaces.”

Read the rest of the article>>

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Hunger is spreading while the number of homeless families is increasing as a result of the recession and other factors, according to a report on Tuesday.

U.S.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors said cities reported a 26 percent jump in demand for hunger assistance over the past year, the largest average increase since 1991.

Middle-class families as well as the uninsured, elderly, working poor and homeless increasingly looked for help with hunger, which was mainly fueled by unemployment, high housing costs and low wages.

The 2009 report is based on a survey of 27 cities, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and San Francisco, that comprise the group’s task force on hunger and homelessness.

Looking ahead to 2010, cities said they expect it will be difficult to meet increased demands for food due to the impact of state and local budget cuts, a decrease in grocery store donations and higher food costs.

Read the rest of the article>>

(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Good For the Jews announces the “Putting the Ha! in Hanukkah” 2009 tour. The hilarious rock duo, and special guest Marc Maron, bring their unorthodox style of music and comedy to Los Angeles. Check out their latest song below.

Show Details:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 (the minus-third night of Hanukkah)
Doors at 7:30 pm, show at 8:30 pm
@ Largo at the Coronet
366 N. La Cienega Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA

$$Buy tickets at the box office, online at www.largo-la.com, or by calling (310) 855-0350.

Bonus
Bring a couple cans of food to the show and help feed the hungry this holiday season! It’ll make you feel good. All donations will go toward Fed Up With Hunger.