Addressing Food Insecurity for Our Immigrant and Refugee Neighbors

Immigrant and refugee support

Central LA

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Located in the Westlake and Koreatown areas, FCCLA practices compassion, diversity, and inclusion while serving the needs of some of largest concentrations of immigrant & refugee populations in LA county. Approximately 70% of the immigrant population in these areas do not have citizenship status making it difficult to gain steady employment to sustain basic needs such as food. Around half of this immigrant population experiences food insecurity on an ongoing basis. The pain of hunger impacts both mental and physical health, which, together with the lack of citizenship status, impacts the ability to engage in economic/labor and social opportunities for self-sustainability. Food insecurity especially hinders childhood development and socialization. Many government-funded food programs are being eliminated & many immigrants are also fearful of participating in these existing programs as this could increase their vulnerability of being detained or deported. CGUF is a vital safe haven.

Integral to our commitment to food, environmental, and social justice, FCCLA Community Gardens & Urban Farm (CGUF) grows organic, regenerative food for our food insecure immigrant and refugee neighbors. In its first year, CGUF has transformed church grounds with four gardens of over 25 raised beds of winter and Asian greens, herbs, tomatoes, squash, vining beans, medicinal plants, berries and more, as well as over 40 citrus and stone fruit trees. An inter-sectoral initiative that engages in many FCCLA activities, one of CGUF's primary functions is to augment Food@First, a vibrant food program for our underserved communities. Twice each month, over 30 church volunteers offer canned goods, rice, beans, pasta, tuna, chicken, and other foods. CGUF enhances this program by providing healthy, culturally appropriate, fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs. To date,13,405 households have been served, comprised of at least 31,256 individuals. The majority served include Korean, Filipino, Chinese, Taiwanese, Latinx, Russian, Central American, & Ukrainian immigrant and refugee populations.
CGUF grows, maintains, & harvests from the gardens with volunteers and only one paid staff (garden director); to maintain and expand this bounty, we need to sustain our one paid position & add a part-time garden manager, & part-time teaching staff for our free Community Classes of hands-on gardening, nutrition, reading/writing classes & special events such as MLK day; garden plants are also needed.

We witness the growing and urgent need to feed the hungry and dispossessed. CGUF is a vital initiative responding to physical, mental, and spiritual needs of immigrants & refugees in LA County. Our experience is that critical social and legal services are most successful when immediate, essential needs like hunger and food insecurity are first met. CGUF prioritizes & builds upon this fundamental need.
Unique in that CGUF is part of a religious institution aiming to be a beacon of earth democracy and compassion by living in sustainable, just, and equitable ways, we aim to be a model for other religious entities, often with significant property holdings. We provide a template for institutions to develop farms & gardens on their urban properties and for their communities. This would change not only landscapes of churches & other organizations throughout LA County but also provide havens of beauty and peace and ecological healing that nourish physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing.