Feeding L.A.’s hungry families

Creating a better way to get food to hungry families in L.A. County—with a first-of-its-kind food system map.

USC Launched 2020

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Photo source: County of Los Angeles COVID-19 Newsroom

Impact

Since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, our food insecurity research has helped L.A. County leaders put healthy food on the table for millions of Angelenos. These insights shaped early efforts like the COVID Food Assistance Grant, the Food Equity Roundtable Action Plan, and the development of Food Base LA—a public map of L.A.’s food system. Now, Food Base LA is launching with the LA County Office of Food Systems to help local leaders plan smarter, data-driven solutions and advance a 10-year strategy to improve healthy food access across the county. Our research has informed:

10 M pounds of food delivered to families during the COVID lockdown

5 new L.A. policies created to feed more people

Challenge

L.A. officials needed a better way to see which neighborhoods needed food support during the COVID-19 pandemic, so they could get emergency food programs up and running. Today, with a quarter of Angelenos still struggling to get enough food on a regular basis, the mission remains the same: providing key data to partners getting food to the people who need it.

Our Plan

Developed with support from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. 2125616, PI: de la Haye), the Annenberg Foundation, and Cedars-Sinai, and working with a team of scientists, local leaders, and community partners, we created Food Base LA to track how food moves through the county. By bringing together complex, fragmented data into a single, accessible platform, we’re showing decision-makers the gaps and opportunities in the system—and helping them take action before people slip through the cracks.

Food base LA

To better understand L.A. County’s food system—and gain insights that help design smarter programs and policies—explore the Food Base LA dashboard.

Explore the dashboard

User guide to Food Base LA

Please note: Individuals seeking food assistance or food pantry locations should visit LA County Department of Public Social Service’s food and nutrition page or LA Regional Food Bank’s food pantry locator.

“The Food Base LA dashboard is richly detailed with information about which communities of Los Angeles are suffering greater levels of food insecurity, how close they are to grocery retail, where food pantries are, where CalFresh and WIC retailers are, and where farmers markets are. It will also help us see where we might want to concentrate some of our planning efforts to bring more community gardens and urban farms closer to the people who need better access to healthy food. We’re proud to be hosting the dashboard and grateful to the outstanding work of the USC team in developing it.”

Paula Daniels

Executive Director, LA County Office of Food Systems

Project Goals

Create a clearer way to see the problem

We’ve built a live model of L.A.’s food system to uncover new data, support planning of new programs and policies, and better understand how people get food—especially during a crisis.

Help officials get food to the right places

We’ve shared this real-time food system map and related reports with local leaders to show where people need help and where opportunities exist—from enrolling more residents in CalFresh to planning urban farming initiatives—so they can act faster and more effectively.

Approach

We’ve combined stakeholder insights, agency input, public resources, and data from partners like LA Regional Food Bank, Yelp, and findhelp.org to document the countywide food system. We’re seeking to understand how and where people access healthy food and identify new ways to increase access.