Hundreds lined up in their cars early Wednesday morning to get groceries at a large-scale food distribution event at the Industry Hills Expo Center.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis hosted the event. She told KNX News’ Karen Adams that the county is working with the L.A. Regional Food Bank, Baby to Baby, the city of Industry, and the city of La Puente.
“We're running into a lot of people who were living with SNAP benefits and cash assistance, and we did see some people who were federal employees as well as folks who're not employed or underemployed,” she said.
Olivia Cervantes with the L.A. Regional Food Bank told KNX News’ Pete Demetriou that almost 3,000 food boxes were given out to those who relied on Cal Fresh, as well as those who are federal workers.
“We're also seeing people that have never asked for food assistance, who have never seen themselves in this situation where they have to ask for food assistance,” she said. “So it's a lot of first timers here, just like we saw in the pandemic, and we're just happy that they're here and they're getting the food assistance they need.”
Industry Mayor Cory Moss served as a volunteer during the event.
“We had a line out of the venue all the way, a couple of miles out to Hacienda, towards the 60 Freeway, heading up north towards the 10 Freeway, heading east to Azusa,” she said. “So we had all of our L.A. County Sheriff's Department here to help with traffic and trying to keep it as peaceful as possible, trying to get people in and out of here quickly, and it was tough. There were some high tensions out there.”
The L.A. Regional Food Bank is planning a second food distribution on Saturday in El Monte.
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