LA, The Nation's Hungriest County, Awarded 7 Food Waste Grants

LOS ANGELES, CA — There are more people living with food insecurity in Los Angeles County than any other place in the nation, which is why state officials awarded seven grants countywide to help communities eliminate food waste.

Seven Los Angeles charities and the City of Culver City were awarded $2.1 million rom the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery under its new Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program, the department announced Monday.

The organizations are tasked with finding strategies for eliminating the estimated six million tons of food waste that ends up in landfills in California each year while finding ways to get more food onto the tables of those in need. The program is part of California's strategy to combat climate change, and 31 projects statewide received more than $9.4 million from CalRecycle to eliminate waste.

According to the hunger relief charity Feeding America, 12..2 percent or nearly 1.3 million Angelinos go hungry. The organization found that there are more children living without access to enough food in Los Angeles County than anywhere else in the country.

"Bolstering California's food recovery infrastructure will help feed communities in need, create new jobs, and result in significant greenhouse gas reductions," CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline said. "Our hope is that these programs will inspire similar efforts throughout California."

TheL.A. County grant recipients are:

-- Food Finders Inc., $100,000;

-- Food Forward, $500,000;

-- Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, $386,960;

-- St. Francis Center, $100,000;

-- The Midnight Mission, $100,000;

-- City of Culver City, $497,144;

-- Los Angeles Conservation Corps, $375,206; and

-- Strong Food/L.A. Kitchen Inc., $389,387.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.

Photo: A shopper holds fresh produce at Northgate Gonzalez Market before a press conference there where the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced new data on food insecurity in Los Angeles County on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 in Los Angeles. Data released shows that food insecurity affected one out of three Los Angeles County low-income households. Among those food insecure households, more than 67% were Latino. (Danny Moloshok/AP Images for Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)