We're fundraising to ensure every Angeleno has access to food, community, and support!
Hollywood Food Coalition has provided hunger relief to unhoused and food-insecure neighbors through hot, healthy meals served every single night of the year, without fail, since 1987. Since then, we have grown into a thriving meal service and food rescue operation providing meals and other basic necessities to food-insecure Angelenos.
Our Community Dinner has served hot, healthy meals every night of the year, since 1987, without ever missing a night. We are the only nightly meal service between downtown and Santa Monica. We emphasize choice, providing meat, fish, vegetarian, and vegan options, bread, salad, and fruit, serving over 91,000 meals in 2023, a 7% increase since 2022, and a 40% increase since 2020. We have no barriers to access, so we serve more community members each day than any other social service agency in the area, including neighbors typically marginalized
Our consistency builds trust with our guests, allowing us to meet other health needs through our Community Wellness program. In 2023, we distributed over 19,000 basic-need items, including blankets, tents, socks, hygiene kits, sleeping bags, clothing, and more. We also collaborate with other nonprofits to connect dinner guests with on-site medical, mental health, and vision care, housing navigation, substance-use counseling, ID document recovery, and hygiene/clothing services.
Our Community Exchange, born in May 2020, is a concierge food service that provides small to medium-sized nonprofits with the food they need when they need it, so they can focus on their missions. We’re revamping the current food bank model to help nonprofits build meal programs. We take great care in learning about each organization’s programs and the communities they serve and then set up a personalized plan. Since 2020, we’ve rescued more than 7 million pounds of food, averaging over 49,000 lbs per week, served more than 160 non-profit partners, and have more than 400 business donors, from restaurants and local businesses to corporations and wholesalers. In 2023, we rescued 2.58 million pounds of food, equivalent to 2.15 million meals.
Our programs wouldn't be possible without the dedication and commitment of thousands of volunteers who have donated their time over the years. In 2023 alone, our Community Dinner saw over 4,800 volunteers lend their services to prepare and serve meals, and our Community Exchange welcomed approximately 660 volunteers who supported our staff receiving, sorting, organizing and distributing the food recovered.
For many years, while serving on the streets and renting several kitchens along the way, we have dreamed of a space we can call our own: a beautifully designed space, with a multi-course, seated dining experience that would serve as our headquarters and would improve our ability to meet the nutritional, health, and housing needs of our community. Coming out of the pandemic, we are actively working toward finding and securing our dream home for the Community Dinner program, and a larger and improved space for our Community Exchange program.