On October 16, Food Day LA brought our network to Los Angeles City Hall, where councilmembers recognized Good Food Champions from across the city. Since 2011, the Los Angeles Food Policy Council has brought this celebration to City Council, giving each office the chance to honor a person, business, or organization advancing food equity in their district. This year’s Food Day resolution was sponsored by Councilmember Raman, and we’re grateful to every office that nominated a champion.
LAFPC Executive Director Alba Velasquez opened by speaking to the urgency of this moment. The federal budget law passed in July 2025 is projected to cut $186 billion in SNAP funding nationwide through 2034. In Los Angeles alone, more than 10,000 lawfully present immigrants lost CalFresh eligibility this year because of that law. The federal government also canceled $47 million awarded to California to help farmers supply fresh food to food banks and schools.
For LA families, Alba explained, these cuts mean harder choices: buying fewer groceries as prices rise, putting off another bill, or turning to an already stretched food pantry. The impact ripples outward, too. Neighborhood markets and farmers lose sales, and pantries have more people to feed with fewer resources.
She reminded the Council that food justice is tied to worker justice, economic justice, housing justice, immigrant justice, and justice for our unhoused neighbors, and that these struggles have to be addressed together. Calling food essential infrastructure, she asked councilmembers to commit to a resilient food system through City policies, funding, and partnerships that protect food access, support workers and businesses, and advance environmental sustainability. She also invited each Council office to work with LAFPC to bring the regional priorities in our updated Good Food for All Agenda, developed with community partners, to life in their districts. Recognizing this year’s champions, she said, also means supporting their ability to keep doing this work.
Good Food Champions
Council District 1: NELA Food Distribution. A grassroots, female-led mutual aid group in Northeast LA that collects, prepares, and delivers food directly to neighbors in need, including families and seniors.
Council District 2: LA Valley College Basic Needs Center. Fights student food insecurity through CalFresh application help, Warm Meal Wednesdays, weekly food distributions, emergency food cards, and meal vouchers.
Council District 3: Pierce College Brahma Bodega. Part of Pierce College’s Basic Needs Program, the Bodega gives students access to food alongside housing support and referrals so they can focus on succeeding in college and beyond.
Council District 4: Every Day Action. Rescues leftover catered meals from film and TV sets, grocery stores, events, and festivals and delivers them to unhoused and under-resourced Angelenos, making it a model for reducing food waste in the film industry.
Council District 6: Behind the Beet. Promotes accessible, community-rooted healthy living through gardening, hands-on cooking, and wellness workshops that help people feel connected to their food, their bodies, and each other.
Council District 7: Ignite the Light of Hope Foundation. Runs a mobile food pantry that brings fresh produce and pantry staples to thousands of families each week, guided by the belief that nutritious food is a right, not a privilege.
Council District 8: SÜPRMARKT. South Central’s Black-owned organic grocer, on a mission to end food apartheid with carefully sourced healing foods plus education that supports lifelong healthy habits.
Council District 9: Hurting and Hungry Charities. A grassroots group that provides weekly groceries, fresh produce, and seasonal holiday and back-to-school giveaways to low-income, unhoused, and marginalized residents.
Council District 10: Partnership for Growth LA. Through its Freedom Farms program, Partnership for Growth LA invests in local urban farms and master farmers to expand urban agriculture and make healthy food more accessible in the community.
Council District 10: We Grow LA. Invests in local youth and families through mentorship, school programming, and safe-space events, and runs grocery giveaways and community pantries that offer organic, healthy food.
Council District 11: Emerson Avenue Community Garden. An all-volunteer nonprofit turning one acre of Orville Wright Middle School’s campus into an organic food garden and green space for education and community building.
Council District 13: Food Access LA. Runs eight weekly farmers’ markets across LA that support small farms and local food entrepreneurs, and expands access through Market Match, WIC, nutrition education, and urban agriculture.
Council District 14: Barrio Action. For nearly 50 years this El Sereno youth and family center has supported local families with services that include a food pantry and weekly food distribution, so kids and parents can focus on thriving together.
Council District 15: Watts Labor Community Action Committee. Serving South LA for more than 60 years, WLCAC’s FamilySource Center partners with Food Forward and local supermarkets to run a fully stocked daily food pantry for more than 4,000 individuals and families each year.
These champions show that a just food system is built neighborhood by neighborhood, by people who show up for their communities every day, and that protecting their work matters more than ever as federal cuts deepen. Thank you to each honoree, to Councilmember Raman and every Council office that took part, and to the more than 300 organizations, businesses, and stakeholders in our network who keep the Good Food for All Agenda moving forward. Food Day comes once a year, but the work doesn’t stop.
Read the Good Food for All Agenda
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We reside, work, and cultivate food
on unceded Indigenous homelands.
We acknowledge and honor the descendants of the Tongva, Kizh, and Gabrieleño peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands). We pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
As part of a greater foodshed, we would also like to pay respect to and honor the Chumash, Tataviam, Serrano, Kitanemuk, ʔíviĨuqaletem, Acjachemen, Payómkawichum, and any other tribal group possibly not mentioned. As a Food Policy Council for Los Angeles we recognize this land acknowledgment is limited and engagement is an ongoing process of learning and accountability. To learn more about these First Nations, visit here.