Produce in the Park

Produce in the Park

11:45am-1:30pm at St. James Park (near USC) on Thursdays

🥦Produce in the Park🌳 is a free, weekly food distribution that begins at 11:45am on THURSDAYS at St. James Park (near USC). The produce (sourced from Food Forward) is distributed to community members at the park, as well as being bagged and organized into boxes to be delivered to several LA Community Fridges and pantries. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come to the park to get produce, to help out, or even better, BOTH! We always need people to cull (sort) produce, help bag, take produce to a fridge, + a handful of other roles explained in detail below. Spanish speakers are especially needed at the park.

SIGNUP & Q’s

To sign up, visit tinyurl.com/PitPsignup or the 🔗 in IG bio (best w/ computer browser). We are working on an app that hopefully will launch in 2026.

If you’re curious about any of the roles or have any q’s in general, email info@mutualaidla.org

And don’t forget to check out our volunteer-designed merch!

ROLES

(choose one or choose a couple 🙂 )

CULLING + DISTRO (park) – we meet at St. James Park (23 St. James Park) around 11:45am to: help unload produce once it arrives, distribute produce to the community and cull and bag produce in preparation for LA Community fridge and pantry pick-ups. We go from 11:45am-1:30pm(ish) open house style, so come and go as your schedule allows. 

FRIDGE PICKUP (park > fridge) – Swing by the park between 1-1:30pm and pick up a batch of bagged produce, prepared meals and water for stocking an LA Community Fridge (lacommunityfridges.com) of your choosing. You’re welcome to make it a quick stop or come to the park early to help/hang. Follow LACF on IG and check out the LACF Linktree for more info and opportunities to keep the fridges stocked, clean and running.

COMMERCE CARAVAN (Commerce > park) – 7-9 people meet up at 10:45am at Food Forward’s Pit Stop, which is a warehouse in the City of Commerce. Everybody loads up their vehicles with boxes of produce (5k pounds in total) and drives it over to St. James Park–a roughly 30 minute commute for a 11:45am arrival–where volunteers and community members are waiting to help unload. Text Will (417-527-3132) if interested.

MATERIALS TRANSPORT (Storage Unit > park < Storage Unit) – You can sign up to pick up our weekly PitP materials (1 bin with bags, gloves, masks, signs, tarps, etc, 5 pop up canopies, and a bag of grocery bags) from our PitP storage unit (5 minute drive from the park) and bring them to the park for set up (around 11:45am). These items also need to be returned at the end of PitP (around 1:30pm), which can be done by the same person or another person. If you’re coming back the next week you can keep it in your car too. .

COMPOST (park > green bin or compost) – spoiled produce is put into buckets and is ready to be picked up by the Compost volunteer at about 1:30pm, who then drops it off at a compost location such as LA River Farmers Market (opens at 3pm at Los Angeles State Historic Park), Hyperion Garden Project, Elysian Valley Community Garden’s compost bin (inquire about special directions), a green bin, or bring them to your local community garden. After drop off, buckets should be rinsed out and air dried. Finally, the buckets need to get back to the park the following week to be reused again.

EVERYTABLE PICKUP (Vernon > park) – CURRENTLY ON HOLD – this person heads over to the Everytable warehouse at around 11am with a bunch of insulated cooler bags that they fill with ~200 prepared meals which they then take to the park for distribution to local unhoused community members and for distribution to each of the fridges signed-up for that day. Meal expiration dates–anything 2 days over the actual date, we toss–can be checked at the warehouse. We’ll get you connected with Sam L., who will give you all the deets and #’s you’d need. 

WATER TRANSPORT (Storage Unit or Store > park) – You can sign up to pick up water from our PitP storage unit (5 minute drive from the park) and grab cases there. Or you can purchase water from the store and be reimbursed. As it gets hotter, cold or frozen water is preferred, so you could freeze at home and bring to the park too.

REMOTE ROLES

CONFIRMATION TEXTER – Send Wednesday evening reminder texts to folks who have signed up for roles and fridges using a template as your guide. First-timers get more in-depth texts letting them know what they can expect and any other important deets.  

SOCIAL MEDIA – Help make, post and tag cute, colorful graphics for IG reminding folks to sign up for PiTP 🙂 Email info@mutualaidla.org if interested in this much needed role. 

PLASTIC BAGS! – As long as they are clean/food-free, we’ll always take thick, plastic bags, clear produce bags, reusable canvas bags, insulated cooler bags (silver and the type with handles). Fill out this form (tiny.cc/bagsplease) if you have more than 10 bags to contribute or bring it by the park during PitP. Thank you!