Here at Food For Free, we’ve been honored to partner with La Colaborativa, a local nonprofit that empowers Latinx immigrants to enhance the social and economic health of their communities and people. In 2020, we worked together to establish the organization’s first survival pantry, which began as a pop-up emergency food distribution service run from the front porch of Gladys Vega, Executive Director of La Colaborativa, and stocked entirely by Food For Free.
We’ve come a long way since then. Today, La Colaborativa is still feeding 7,000 to 8,000 households, with an estimated 3,000 taking home boxes containing some of the 12,000 to 15,000 pounds of food that is donated directly by Food For Free. Since the very first food distribution, Food For Free has delivered large donations every single week, making it possible for La Colaborativa to continue meeting community needs with reliable, healthy, and culturally familiar foods. More than two years later, that need continues to be significant, and thousands of residents rely on donated food to survive – a staggering 50 percent of adults in the Latinx community face food insecurity today.
On Friday, September 30th, in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month and the incredible work our partner does for the community, we wanted to do something special for the people that they serve. We organized and conducted a “surprise delivery” of Latin American staples to the food pantry, including two pallets of masa and cooking oil – foods that are not typically found at donation centers. We are committed to ensuring that food insecure residents have continued access to culturally relevant foods.
There is a common misconception that the struggle of those who are food insecure can be alleviated simply by ensuring that there are enough calories available for their consumption. However, this is not the case. At Food For Free, we open up the lens of what it means to provide our communities with food, and ensure that cultural relevance is a key part of our work. It’s crucial to recognize the deep connections we all have to food, and how these connections go far beyond simple nutrition. Through a cultural lens of food rescue and distribution, we can not only provide families and communities with food on the table, but also empower them through foods that are familiar and those that strengthen their identity and sense of belonging to their cultures.
Sovereignty, dignity, and celebration of the communities we serve is crucial to our work. Understanding that each person in our community has a relationship with food that is different to our own is the first step in truly supporting and uplifting our communities. We look forward to continuing our powerful partnership with La Colaborativa and to providing our communities with reliable access to culturally relevant foods. Our deep respect and admiration for the people that make up our diverse communities motivates us to continually create new, meaningful ways to serve them. We all deserve access to food that reminds us of our humanity – and we’re proud of the pathways our partnership with La Colaborativa has created, and how they help us to continue our work for a more equitable and just society.
