Connecting Californians to Food Resources During COVID-19

L.A. Controller Ron Galperin

The spread of COVID-19 dramatically impacted the lives of Californians up and down the Golden State.

Mandatory school and business closures, along with quarantines and stay at home orders, created new challenges for everyone. For many families, a top priority is maintaining access to food and nutritious meals. As these dramatic changes began, my office leveraged assets from ESRI, such as the Supermarket Access Map, to examine how preexisting issues of food access might be further exacerbated by the pandemic.

Supermarket Access Map - City of Los Angeles

Governments, community organizations and private businesses mobilized quickly to respond to the enormous impact COVID-19 had on access to fresh and healthy food — expanding resources, using the public school infrastructure to distribute food, and designating special hours for seniors and immunocompromised residents to shop for groceries.

The response was immediate and encouraging, but with no centralized hub pulling together the available public, non-profit and private resources, residents had to sift through numerous sources to find the most appropriate and nearest resource.

My office created and released a suite of maps, that pulled together information from government, media reports and non-profit communications to provide Angelenos with information on where they could find fresh food.

Food Pantries in the City of Los Angeles

This map includes food resources across the City of Los Angeles, connecting residents to emergency distribution sites located in their neighborhoods.

LAUSD Grab & Go Food Centers

My office mapped all 64 LAUSD Grab & Go locations where families can pick up two nutritious meals per child daily.

Grocery Stores with Shopping Hours for Seniors

Many grocery stores have announced special shopping hours for seniors, individuals with disabilities and the immunocompromised. This map includes nearly 500 grocery stores in Los Angeles County – the state's most populous region – offering adjusted store hours for high-risk shoppers.

After receiving an overwhelmingly positive response, and because COVID-19's influence is not limited to one geographic area, my office expanded our Food Pantries map to include the entire state of California. This was a labor intensive process and resulted in a map of 1,800+ food banks, pantries and distribution centers throughout the state, the only resource of it's kind in California.

Food for Californians

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