The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank is the backbone of hunger relief in a county of roughly 10 million people. Since opening in 1973 it has handed out more than a billion meals, and it keeps food within reach of most LA neighborhoods through about 665 partner agencies running close to 880 distribution sites. Michael Flood has led it as President and CEO since 2000. It holds a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, the top mark the rater gives.
The Food Bank works as a wholesaler of hunger relief. It sources food from grocers, growers, manufacturers, government programs, and donors, stores and sorts it at warehouse scale, then moves it out to a network of partner agencies: pantries, shelters, churches, and community centers that hand it to families. That structure lets one organization reach across all of Los Angeles County without running a storefront in every neighborhood.
Alongside the partner network, the Food Bank runs direct programs for groups that have trouble getting to a pantry, including older adults and children. The county it serves is enormous and uneven, with deep need in South LA, the Antelope Valley, and pockets of every district.
Michael Flood has been the chief executive since 2000, one of the longest tenures of any major food bank leader in the country. Under him the organization expanded its warehouse capacity, including the purchase of a 256,000-square-foot facility in the City of Industry, and pushed its lifetime distribution past one billion meals. That continuity matters for an operation this size, where relationships with growers, grocers, and hundreds of agencies take years to build.
The service area is Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States. Need here is not confined to one area: high housing costs push working families into food insecurity across the county, and demand spiked during and after the pandemic without fully receding. The partner-agency model is built for exactly this kind of sprawl, putting a distribution site within reach of most residents.
Yes. The LA Regional Food Bank is a registered 501(c)(3) and a member of Feeding America, the national network of food banks. It holds a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, the highest the rater awards, which reflects strong financial health and accountability. Like all food banks, it stretches donations through bulk buying and donated product, so a dollar given here produces far more food than a dollar spent at retail.
Donations and volunteer sign-ups both run through lafoodbank.org. Money goes furthest because the Food Bank buys in bulk and accepts donated product, but it also takes food drives and corporate support. Volunteers sort and pack food at the warehouse, which is one of the most direct ways to help in the LA area.
California is served by a set of large regional food banks rather than one statewide body. The LA Regional Food Bank covers the largest population of any of them, with the SF-Marin Food Bank anchoring the Bay Area and Feeding San Diego covering the south. For anyone in Los Angeles County, this is the central organization, and giving here keeps support inside the county.
Supplies ~665 pantries, shelters, and community groups running ~880 sites countywide.
Monthly food boxes for older adults living on fixed incomes.
School and community distributions aimed at kids who miss meals outside school.
Surge distribution when wildfires or other emergencies hit the region.
Sources: Los Angeles Regional Food Bank website (lafoodbank.org), Charity Navigator, and the organization’s published figures on partners, sites, and lifetime meals. We are not affiliated with Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and receive no compensation for this listing. Spotted an error? [email protected]
More California and food-bank resources