ABOUT US
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Our founders are Ryan Rossow, Andrew Cormack and Max Karambles. We wanted to help people in our community who were hungry and didn't have enough to eat. We started volunteering by sorting food at a local soup kitchen. Then we decided to start a club at our high school. We invited our friends to join us and we started doing food drives, and working with more local organizations in our area. We found that there are a lot of families that depend on Food Banks and Soup kitchens to meet their daily requirements. According to the Los Angeles Department of Health Services, "food insecurity is a major public health issue that has reached crisis proportions in LA County. It can have significant negative impacts on health and well-being across the life span, including impairing growth and development among children, increasing risk for depression and other mental health conditions among adolescents, and contributing to malnutrition and worsened medical conditions in the elderly.
Having access to nutritious, affordable, and quality food is essential to the well-being of individuals and the communities in which they live. Immediate and concerted action is needed to respond to this crisis and ensure that all people can fulfill the basic need for adequate nutrition."
The good news is that there are a lot of people who want to help. That's when we decided to create the South Bay Food Initiative to connect the helpers with those who needed the help! Now the South Bay Food Initiative is a non-profit organization doing volunteer events every month and sometimes a lot more! We have donated hundreds of volunteer hours to other hunger-related non-profits. We have reached tens of thousands of people with our educational outreach and we have donated over 3 tons of food. We also raise money and donate to local food banks and soup kitchens. We would love to have you join our team. You can do a one-time volunteer activity or join our club and help us design how we will grow. No matter what, you will leave with a sense of having given back and you will make a difference!
