Open Collective
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End of the Year Recap
Published on December 17, 2021 by Brett

Hello friends,

As we close out our first year in food recovery, we wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your generous donations. As a small mutual aid organization with big dreams of expansion, we really appreciate your monetary support in helping us to achieve our goals. Thank you all so much. Our volunteers and the communities we support love you!

Since starting this project on May 30th, 2021, we have recovered a total of 11,442 pounds of food. This equates to preventing about 950 pounds of methane from entering our atmosphere. We are on track to divert over 20,000 pounds of food by our anniversary date in 2022!

As we look forward to the new year, we will begin expanding our efforts by recovering prepared food from events. This is where the bulk of the funds we receive will be put towards, as we will need to purchase to-go supplies, catering trays, and other items to help us make this next step possible. We will keep you posted on this progress in the new year!

I would like to lift up some our small team of volunteers, who graciously volunteer their time on Sundays to make these efforts possible:

- Lots of love to our Gen Z babies and co-founders Imani and Parker. We could not have done it without you! Imani and Parker ran the program for a month when I was out of town. So much love to you both!

- Joshua from Street Watch for making so many pick-ups for us! We'd be lost without you.

- The folks at Food Forward for gleaning markets and packaging produce for us to pick up.

- Brooke and Vivian from FoodCycle LA for gleaning markets and delivering us even more food.

- Jan, Lyn, Andy, Jenna, & Bineh from Street Watch for volunteering your time and vehicles. Spending Sundays with you all is the best, and we are so thankful!

- Matthew for always keeping us on track and efficient as we sort produce. We love you and are so happy to have you as part of our team!

- Ndindi, Kris, Michael and the folks of Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid: We are so grateful to be in this struggle with you. Thanks for showing up and supporting our project.

Lastly, I would like to close out this post by honoring some of the folks who we delivered food to have passed away on the streets due to the city of Los Angeles cruel treatment of unhoused folks. At the core of our work, we hope to abolish the structures that create this inequality and allow such inhumane treatment of our fellow human beings. 

Mo, who committed suicide in CD5.
Bill, who passed from covid-19 in CD5.
Daniel, who passed from a seizure in CD5.

RIP Mo, Bill, & Daniel. We will continue to fight for you. 

To the countless others who were displaced or had their camps destructed by the city, we hope to reconnect with you one day soon.

In Solidarity,
Brett