MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Im Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And Im Melissa Block.
California's high unemployment, and slow economic recovery, have created a grim reality for some families. They're worried about putting food on the table. In response, the city of Los Angeles is trying to create a new kind of recycling program.
As NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports, it's meant to keep tons of good food from going into the trash can.
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KAREN GRIGSBY BATES: The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank is a busy place. It donates produce, canned and frozen items to scores of humanitarian groups and local food pantries.
On this day, the parking lot is jammed with idling vans waiting to be loaded. Food Bank President Michael Flood surveys the warehouse, and says he's seeing a whole new level of need.
Mr. MICHAEL FLOOD (President, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank): There are so many new people in line. I can't tell you how many times I've heard from somebody, saying: I used to be a donor, and I never thought I was going to be standing in line at a food pantry, needing help and needing assistance.
BATES: The newly needy include a woman named Marina(ph), who's too embarrassed to give us her last name. We meet her at a food pantry in Culver City.
MARINA: This is my first time at a food bank. I just lost my job, and there's five of us in the house - my daughter and her two sons.
BATES: Marinas daughter and grandchildren moved in with her after their family restaurant folded. Her husband is still working, but his salary now has to feed five people. Financially, they're at the breaking point.
This is the new face of hunger in Los Angeles, says L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar.
Mr. JOSE HUIZAR (Councilman, Los Angeles): Today in Los Angeles, about a third of low-income people are food insecure - meaning, they dont know where they will get their next meal from.
BATES: Huizar acknowledges the sad irony - people going hungry when tons of good food is tossed in the trash here every day. Thats what prompted the councilman to call for a new kind of recycling for L.A. His measure, passed late last year, requires every city agency to look for ways to save surplus food from city-sponsored programs and events.
Mr. HUIZAR: We hope that we not only make a cultural change, that it is something common that people think about when they have any surplus food. And secondly, build the infrastructure that makes it a lot easier to donate surplus food. Thats our goal.
BATES: It's expanding the kind of food recycling that some have been doing for a while. The L.A. Convention Center, for example, gives leftovers from big events to several local homeless shelters. Surplus food from one recent event there reportedly was enough to feed 3,000 people.
Then there are the charitable groups, such as Angel Harvest. It locates and recycles food from lots of sources, including local companies.
Mr. ROY GUSMAN (Driver, Angel Harvest): We're on the Santa Monica Freeway; we're going downtown to Farmer John's.
BATES: On this day, Angel Harvest driver Roy Gusman is headed to Farmer John's, a pork processor near downtown L.A. The company is donating 250 fresh hams. Gusman has a notebook of local food pantries in need.
Mr. GUSMAN: It's kind of listed in a way where it tells me how people theyll feed in a day, about - tells me about their storage, and it tells me any of their restrictions.
Unidentified Woman #1: Can you guys get a towel?
Unidentified Woman #2: Yeah.
BATES: Some of those hams will wind up with a very happy Alexandra Tostes at a Salvation Army shelter that houses more than 500 people.
Ms. ALEXANDRA TOSTES (Associate Director, Salvation Army): To get a donation like these hams, you know, it's going to make a great difference to us. Ham is a luxury item for our meals.
BATES: Gusman makes another stop nearby at Feast, a Hollywood catering company. The catering boss, Harvey Slater, says he's glad someone can use the frittatas and home fries left over from a corporate breakfast.
Mr. HARVEY SLATER (Director of Catering and Event Planning): You know, I figure we're probably going to feed about a hundred more people today. And so we had 700 happy clients, and we get to feed some needy people.
BATES: Those involved in L.A.'s food recycling say it's a mindset that hopefully, will catch on - the way recycling cans, bottles and newspapers did long ago. And it could solve the biggest part of the city's hunger problem: getting food to people who need it.
Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.