It was my first time at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration.  Nestled in the Civic Center downtown, it’s drab, bureaucratic aesthetic is no frills and all business.  It set the right mood, given that, today, Fed Up with Hunger was all about business.

We came to attend a meeting convened by County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to review the progress of the county’s audit of its response to food insecurity.  The audit, which was requested by the Board of County Supervisors in response to Fed Up with Hunger’s ”Blueprint to End Hunger in Los Angeles”, will help the county determine how to apply the Blueprint’s recommendations.  Over a half a dozen county department were in attendance, as well as the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Feeding America’s spoke person David Arquette and the California Food Policy Advocates.  Read more »

Hello folks!  This last weekend was Big Sunday and Fed Up with Hunger was out in force.  For the unaware, Big Sunday is a Los Angeles wide community service event involving hundreds of service organizations and over 50,000 volunteers.  Be proud Los Angelenos- it ranks as the largest community service event in the nation! 

Fed Up with Hunger’s Big Sunday project was a gleaning of the Hollywood, Larchmont, Brentwood and Encino Farmers Markets.  Our cheery volunteers from the Jewish Federation’s young leadership divisions and Birthright Next solicited produce donations from farmers market shoppers and vendors alike.  We mercilessly unleashed our smiles and go get ‘em enthusiasm, inspiring scores of vulnerable, charity prone people  into giving us produce. Read more »

The Maggid portion of the Seder tells of the Israelites’ journey from slavery to freedom.  It begins Ha Lachma Anya: let all who are hungry come and eat.  This year, don’t let these words pass by as a perfunctory beginning to the Passover story.  The rising tide of hunger in Los Angeles behooves us as a people remembering the poor bread we ate in the land of our affliction to not sit idly by while people who are hungry in our community suffer.

Please help turn yourself and your guests into educated advocates for the ending of hunger by taking a moment to read aloud the Fed Up With Hunger Maggid.  Your Seder is an opportunity to spread awareness of the hunger that exists in our community and what can be done about. 

We’ve included a ready-to-print-and-stamp advocacy letter in support of a strong reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act with our Maggid.   Join Michelle Obama and Scarlett Johansson in their campaign against child hunger and call on Representative George Miller, the Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, to make the Child Nutrition Act a fiscal priority even during this challenging time for the federal budget.  Preventing hunger-associated malnutrition is one of the most cost-effective ways we can ensure that disadvantaged children have the opportunity to grow up into healthy, productive adults. 

This Passover, bring your celebration of freedom out of the past and into the present by taking action against the modern day Mitzrayim of hunger!

Cooking classes can be great fun, but they can also deliver the occasional moment of utter horror. It’s not the part where you butcher a chicken by yourself, though that isn’t exactly good times. It’s not the array of very sharp knives either. No, it’s the way that passionate amateur cooks and professional chefs are encouraged to toss any element of a meal that isn’t utterly perfect. Sure, aspiring star restaurateurs are also drilled about the merits of food economy — saving precious dollars by using everything you can in the kitchen — but if a piece of cauliflower is a bit too charred or a meat dish just a touch over-dry, eh, c’est la vie, out it goes.

I felt the same horror over the recent winter holidays. Mom made the traditional turkey, but she tossed the giblets. I was shocked; you can make and freeze a terrific turkey stock out of those giblets with very little effort. And it’s a great payoff. Freeze your rich turkey stock, save it for a cold, rainy day. When you need it, thaw the stock, add a little corn or carrot, a bit of leftover chicken or turkey, a handful of pasta or matzoh meal, et voila, a hot soup and a perfect cure for stubborn cold.

Wasting food always triggers a feeling of shock in me, no matter how small the loss. It reminds me, every time, that there are hungry people in my own town who could use that over-caramelized cauliflower or slightly dry roasted meat. Now, I hear that I’m not alone. I’ve learned there are many star chefs — perfectionists all — who, nonetheless have taken up the cause of hunger. Their cauliflower may be a perfect golden brown, but their cash is going toward assuring that no one goes without a nutritious meal, here or elsewhere.

Here are some examples of rockstar chefs who are taking on hunger:

* The chefs who participated in the The 27th Wine and Food Festival back in October — major food innovators like Thomas Keller of French Laundry — didn’t just share their talents with local foodies. The event benefitted LA Meals on Wheels, which, over the years, has received an estimated $15 million from its affiliation with the festival.

*   Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio may come off as tough, but he’s got a serious charitable streak, especially when it comes to hunger in America.

*   Jar restaurant’s Suzanne Tracht won her preliminary round of Top Chef Masters, assigning $10,000 for JFS/SOVA, which feeds thousands of needy men, women and children every month. Tracht has also raised money for SOVA through Jar itself, with a $500 per-plate dinner.

*   The “Two Hot Tamales” — Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Miliken — have worked to end hunger with Share Our Strength.

*   Speaking of Taste of a Nation LA, it also benefits the Share Our Strength cause, and it’s got a huge list of local restaurant sponsors. At the very top: Rising chef Ben Ford of local favorite Ford’s Filling Station. He’s the chair this year. And this is a real fundraiser, not just a foodie event with a bit of a charity attached. Since 1988, Taste of a Nation events, the nation’s largest culinary fundraising events, have raised over $70 million. And 100 percent of ticket sales to Taste events go toward anti-hunger, anti-poverty efforts.

*   And speaking of Ford, his commitment to ending hunger doesn’t end with Taste of a Nation LA. Ford also supports the local Farragut School Garden.  He’s helped them secure seed, dirt and other essentials. You can help Ford support the garden, too; when you pay the check at Ford’s restaurant you can also make a donation to the Farragut School Garden.

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.

Today, Alyssa Milano retweeted the Fed Up With Hunger contest that was announced on knowledge junkie blog MentalFloss.com to her 298,000 followers! Check out the post:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/38686

Or sign up for the event on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159918248519

Debra Messing is Fed Up With Hunger. We hope you are too.

Get involved and Give Your Life Meaning.