Since its inception, HoFoCo has served a hot, delicious, multi- course meal to all comers on a nightly basis. No questions asked, no religious test, no lectures, no bullshit. Always with courtesy and kindness, always with a sense of humor, always with the implicit question ‘would you like a pair of socks with that, or a toiletry kit, or or or or or . . .?” Whatever people need we try to provide . . .
Bonnie and I are here, once again, asking for your support, celebrating the Food Coalition during this season of giving . . . and kvelling, too, about the cool NEW stuff we are doing, sharing with you the amazing growth in our capacities and our scope of service . . .
In addition to providing 90,000 meals a year to our dinner guests, we continue to work hard to increase the quality and variety of the meals we serve. Through a new initiative called Culinary Collaborations, we now work with a range of guest chefs to prepare meals reflecting the diversity of our guest’s specific culinary backgrounds. The food keeps getting better and better cuz we insist on this, and we insist on this because for many of our guests the meal we serve will be the only time they eat all day. And the only time they get a choice of what they might want to eat.
Every night a vegan, vegetarian and ‘carnivorean’ option. Every night maximal respect from our fabulous staff (now 27-ish strong, thanks to your support down the years) and wonderful volunteers.
Our Community Wellness program enables us to provide a boatload of help to our guests: on-site housing navigation, medical and vision care, mental health services, substance use counseling and harm reduction services . . . we have recently started providing haircuts, bicycle repair, art therapy, job support . . . and as always, we hand out necessary clothing and hygiene items, and do whatever we can to make sure people understand that we’ll be THERE, the next day, the next day, the next day . . . until they’re able to get on their feet again and say good-bye to us.
We share great food with almost 150 other Not For Profits, too, via our Exchange Program, helping to augment and buttress the work being done by our colleagues and friends. We provide food to senior citizens, and street kids; to women who’ve escaped from domestic violence, to people in rehab; and of course most notably to people living in encampments all over Los Angeles.
2 and a half million pounds of food a year, although it’s not so much the weight that matters as it is the care we try to take with each of our partner organizations to make sure they get what they need and want, not just ‘what we have on hand’. Bonnie and I played a big part in starting the Exchange, and our vision was to provide a ‘concierge’ level of service to our partners: if they don’t have cooking facilities, we try and get them pre-packaged meals; if they can cook, but it ain’t fancy, we don’t go fancy; if they have the ability to make full meals, we aim to provide the proteins and starches and greens that might make for more substantial fare. Meeting people on the ground where they actually live is at the heart of our mission, and has been since l987.
Our Exchange Program is expanding yet again: in the early part of ’25, we will be moving to a bigger warehouse space, and partnering with three other amazing local social service organizations to multiply and amplify our capacity to reach more and more folks in need . . .
Bonnie’s amazing Sunday Lunch Bag Initiative in and of itself helps spread thousands of multi element sack lunches all over LA, every single Sunday.
And under the aegis of our inspiring Executive Director, Arnali Ray, we work with lots of partner orgs to brainstorm ways we can collectively make a difference. It’s the Coalition part of the Food Coalition, the pal-making and the 'lets figure this out together' stuff, that is important to the both of us, and resonates especially in a time when we seem more concerned with throwing an elbow into the next guy’s ribs than helping figure out how to do stuff together to help people in need.
HoFoCo understands what it means to build more inclusive communities: witness the tens of thousands of volunteers who've pitched in at HoFoCo for almost 40 years. Maybe more than anything else, it is this fact that inspires us, the idea that so many people in our city have learned to be that much more tolerant and understanding of others cuz they’ve gotten to know the folks who live in the shadows and beneath the underpasses. Cuz they have gotten to know, as we have gotten to know, that life is about slips, falls, and bad breaks, and shit happens to us all . . . we all deserve mercy, kindness, empathy - less judgment, more lend a hand . . .
Please help support the work we do: help people get back on their feet, and help this stunningly big hearted organization provide a home for people to rediscover what it means to get involved in our community, too. And check out hofoco.org if you want to learn more about how you can get involved, or contact me directly at [email protected]
