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 rich aroma of cinnamon and onions permeated the kitchen.  The Fed Up With Hunger team was cooking up a smorgasbord of food at the University Religious Conference, the umbrella group for faith-based organizations at UCLA.  We assembled quite a spread: curried tunafish salad, spiced lentils, spinach salad, long grained white rice, platters of pastries and a bevy of 2 liter bottles of soda.  Who would have thought that it was all for a hunger banquet?

It’s not as much of an oxymoron as you may think.  Our hunger banquet, an event originally pioneered by Oxfam International, brought college students together from UCLA, USC and Hebrew Union College to examine the full breadth of food security, from those who eat well to those who barely eat at all.  A lucky few did get to partake in the smorgasbord…but most were not so lucky.

The banquet program ran similarly to a Passover Seder: a lengthy scripted conversation and a meal, culminating in a moment of reflection.  The students learned that food insecurity in the developing world and here in the United States is different, but very much the same.  For you folks at home, I’ll boil it down to the elevator speech: the food insecure, both here and abroad, suffer from impaired development and chronic disease that engenders poverty and pushes a happy, healthy life further out of reach for the vulnerable people that live in our community. Read more »

Back in the days of snails, pails and puppy dog tails, I would anxiously await for Valley Beth Shalom’s Purim Carnival for the chance to win a bag of goldfish.  Winning goldfish was no easy task—it usually required some heroic feat, like knocking down a pyramid of bottles with a mere two bean bags.  I relished those glorious years when I persevered and brought home a ziplock with shining goldfish darting back and forth.

Invariably, the goldfish would die within the week despite my best intentions, but that only put a small damper on my joy.  It was all for love of the chase rather than for any sort of deep seated interest in the goldfish themselves.  I’m going to be honest: now that I am older and more empathetic for my aquatic compatriots, I feel guilty.  I’ve left a lot of dead goldfish in my wake.  One might argue that depth of empathy for goldfish is not something one would expect a child to have, but that wouldn’t do much to convince a goldfish that I should be let off the hook.

Thankfully, this year, I had a chance to show that I’m a changed man. Read more »

Aaren Alpert is Fed Up With Hunger’s in-house youth outreach pro .  When Aaren heard that the United Synagogue Youth, or USY, needed social action programming for their Valley Beth Shalom weekend teen retreat, she got to work.  Let me tell you something about Aaren– she’s serious when it comes to youth programming.  Not only is she armed with years of personal and professional experience, but her mother is the legendary Merrill Alpert, youth programming maven of Far West United Synagogue Youth.  In other words, this sort of stuff is literally in her blood.  Teaming up with VBS’ Rabbi Noah Farkas and youth directors Alison Bluestein and Tiffany Kosloy, Aaren put her know how to good use and set up a whole Fed Up With Hunger themed weekend!

On Saturday morning, the USY Fed Up With Hunger extravaganza kicked off with over 100 USY’ers crowded into the Valley Beth Shalom youth lounge for a Fed Up With Hunger Banquet.  The Fed Up With Hunger Banquet is a scripted meal conducted a lot like a Passover Seder, but, instead of telling the story of the Israelites flight from Egypt, the banquet explores the character of food insecurity in the world at large and our own communities.   The USY’ers were challenged as the more economically fortunate to realize how difficult it is for needy individuals and families to afford fresh, healthful food.  We were really impressed with the lively extended conversation the banquet provoked, especially considering the banquet was holding up their lunch!

After taking a break on Saturday for Shabbat and the obligatory DJ’ed dance, the USY’ers got back to it on Sunday morning with a workshop which had them budget for a week’s worth of groceries on a food insecure household’s income.  Even with food stamps, soup kitchens and food pantries to rely on, the USY’ers realized that eating healthfully on a strapped food budget is nearly impossible.  The numbers are demoralizing: the price differential between a nutritionally poor and healthful diet amounts to several hundred dollars per week for a family of four.  The workshop is frustrating by design, as the point is to demonstrate how the food insecure eat poorly as a matter of necessity.

Once the USY’ers were sufficiently fed up with hunger (we can’t resist that pun around here), they rolled up their sleeves and got hands on with their Tikkun Olam.  They split up into groups and worked on a bevy of different projects: potato boxes planters for VBS’ community garden were built, lasagnas were made for a local homeless shelter, food was sorted for the VBS food pantry and nearly one hundred pounds of food donations were collected from Ralph’s.  Some of the more theatrically inclined USY’ers put together video PSA’s about hunger to post on their Facebook pages and other social media.  All in all, were completely impressed by the enthusiastic response we got.  The USY’ers learned about hunger, they took action against hunger and they made the fight to end hunger their own.

After the program was over, we asked Adam Braun, one of the USY teen leaders responsible for running the kinnus, how the weekend impacted him.  He said that “For me, it was an experience to be treasured and it has inspired me to take future action because I know that, even though I may just be one adolescent teenager, I can make a difference.”  That’s right Adam- you can!  And together, we can do so much more.  Thank you USY for taking a stand against hunger in Los Angeles!

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!

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 »

“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!

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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 »

We’re beset by fast food, plagued by food deserts, and our waistlines are growing nearly as fast as the Federal debt- but don’t despair, folks!  We can fix these problems with a little ingenuity and a lot of communal elbow grease.  In fact, one exciting solution is already sweeping the nation: urban farming. 

Urban farms offer a number of benefits.  They provide a ready supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to inner city communities which all too often have a dearth of nutritious, healthful food.  This locally grown produce is more earth friendly than typical supermarket fare, which must be shipped from distant rural areas.  Urban farms also help to make a community out of otherwise anonymous inner city neighborhoods.  If you’ve ever lived in a big city (like Los Angeles), you’ve had the experience of your neighbors being strangers.  You pass by people on the street and you rarely say hello.  There’s really nothing like a good democratic effort to make a community out of anonymity. Read more »

By Stephanie Howard
Program Coordinator for Feeding the Hungry

400 volunteers packing 35,000 meals in one afternoon…talk about being Fed Up With Hunger!