Food Forward redistributes produce to reduce hunger in LA

Food Forward, a local organization that collects produce from orchards, backyards, and farmers markets to distribute to people in need, is currently reaching out for volunteers to assist in their mission.

Currently, Food Forward collects produce from seven Los Angeles-based farmers markets, said Alyson Schill, the volunteer manager of Food Forward. The organization has donated more than 1.7 million pounds of produce and has fed more than 1 million people since its founding in 2009, she added.

Carol Goldstein, a member of the board of advisers for Food Forward and a lecturer in urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said she first started volunteering in 2011 because of the organization’s clear purpose to rid hunger and food insecurity.

Although people are familiar with the issue of hunger, they do not always know the extent of hunger in Los Angeles, Goldstein said.

Jamie Poster, a former volunteer and a graduate student at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said the experience taught her about the amount of produce that goes to waste.

According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, an international environmental organization, 40 percent of food in the United States is thrown out.

While the donations provide recipients with a variety of produce, volunteering connects people across a wide spectrum, Poster said.

“Part of the mission of Food Forward is the social connectivity; connecting volunteers and everyone involved through a shared experience,” Poster said.

Students who volunteer can pick produce for individuals in need while experiencing a field of work they may have not experienced before, Goldstein said.