Produce in the Park

Produce in the Park

12-1:45pm at Saint James Park (near USC) on Thursdays

🥦Produce in the Park🌳 is a free, open-to-all food distribution that begins at NOON on THURSDAYS at Saint James Park (near USC). The produce (provided by Food Forward) goes directly to people who come through the line at the park and the rest gets bagged and divvied up before being taken by volunteers to several LA Community Fridges. Everybody is welcome to come to the park to grab produce, to help out or even better, BOTH! We always need people to help cull (sort) produce, 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/produceparque or the 🔗 in IG bio (best w/ computer browser) OR Text (707) 789-1015 your name and role or fridge you’d like to claim. 

If you’re curious about any of the roles or have any q’s in general, email info@mutualaidla.org or text ‪(707) 789-1015‬.

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

ROLES

(choose one or choose a couple 🙂 

CULLING + DISTRO (park) – we meet at Saint James Park (23 Saint James Park) around 11:50am 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 11:50am-1:50pm 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 around 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 Saint James Park–a roughly 30 minute commute for a roughly 12pm arrival–where volunteers and community members are waiting to help unload. Text Will (417-527-3132) if interested. Detailed directions here.

COMPOST (park > TBD) – 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) – this person heads over to the Everytable warehouse in Vernon 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 or checked once the volunteer gets to the park. We’ll get you connected with Sam L., who will give you all the deets and #’s you’d need. 

WATER TRANSPORT (Filipinotown/Los Feliz > park) – There are two water pickup possibilities. 1. Pickup 5 cases of room temp bottled water from Andrea’s in Los Feliz any day or time before bringing it to the park between 12 and 1pm on Thursday.  2. Pickup chilled and frozen water from Freezer Steve’s in Filipinotown around 11:15am and bring it to the park for folks waiting in line and to go out with produce to the fridges.

REMOTE ROLES

CONFIRMATON 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. Thank you!