Sunday Lunch Drive — HangOutDoGood (HODG)

Important:

Starting Sunday, July 19, Hollywood Food Coalition is moving distribution from Blessed Sacrament Church (on Cassil Place) just down the street to their exchange site at 1223 Vine Street. This will be the new permanent distro for our Sunday Lunch Drive.

Entrance is on the corner of Vine Street and La Mirada Ave.

Lunch Hubs located around the city are all still open and accepting bags on their front porches.

Please help us spread the word and let your fellow lunch makers & drivers know!

Thanks so much,

Team HODG & HoFoCo

WELCOME TO OUR SUNDAY LUNCH DRIVE

STUDENTS - CLICK HERE

Thank you so much for joining us in helping feed our neighbors!

Here’s everything you need to know:

The lunch drive happens every Sunday morning. Rain or shine.
You make lunches at home or in a group with friends!
Most people make about 10 lunches, but you can make as many as you’d like.
Label the bag with the type of sandwich (ex: “PB&J” or “Turkey & Cheese”) This is important and allows us to give the recipients a choice.
Be generous. This is the only meal these folks get all day.
Lunches should contain at least 6 items:
- Drink (water, Capri sun, soda)
- Sandwich (PB+J, Turkey, Ham + Cheese are most common)
- Chips (individually packaged)
- Fruit (oranges, apple sauce, bananas. No apples: too hard on teeth)
- Cookies (individually packaged)
- Snack (beef jerky, granola bar, nuts, etc.)
No glass.
No alcohol.
Some people decorate their bags. Not required- but much appreciated.
If you would like to be featured on our Instagram, tag @hangoutdogood in your posts or email photos to hangoutdogood@gmail.com.
Lastly, drop your lunches off at one of our drop-off locations:

DROP-OFF LOCATIONS

If you are making lunches on a Saturday night, please make sure to store the sandwiches in a cool place or refrigerator.

And don’t forget to do the following when putting together lunch bags:

Wash your hands
Wear gloves
Keep your hair tied back
Use pre-packaged food
And keep your working space clean and safe

QUICK TIP FOR GROUPS: When organizing a group lunch making party, split the cost by identifying a goal (ie. 50 lunches) and create a sign up sheet so that everyone participates in bringing an item. A few people can sign up to bring 50 paper bags, 5 loaves of bread, 3 tubs of peanut butter, 3 jars of jelly, 50 chips, etc. Email us at hangoutdogood@gmail.com for an example sign up sheet!

Donations:

If you are unable to make lunches but still want to contribute to our Sunday Lunch Drive, you can donate the non-perishable items listed below so that HoFoCo can make lunches on site.

Please deliver supplies on Sundays at 10:30am to the distribution area at 1511 Cassil Place OR the HoFoCo kitchen at 5939 Hollywood Blvd from 11:30am - 7pm, 7 days a week.

After you drop off your lunches to one of the Hub Homes on Sunday morning, a bunch of us load them into our cars and drive them over to The Hollywood Food Coalition. THFC then finds a home for every single lunch. They reach out to about 20-30 organizations all across the city and those orgs come pick up the bags and distribute them to their clients in the afternoon. The important thing to know is that without The Hollywood Food Coalition, this would not be happening. So, if you are looking for an organization to donate to, please consider them. You can donate here: https://hofoco.org/donate/
The Hollywood Food Coalition distributes lunches to organizations like People Concern, Mutual Aid, Food on Foot, West Valley Outreach, The Sidewalk Project, Covenant House, The Center, Village Family Services, Housing Works, U.S. Vets of Long Beach, NOHO Alliance and sooooo many more.
If you are in middle school or high school and looking to earn volunteer hours through making lunches, please visit our Students page to review the Lunch Drive protocol.
Yes! We would love for kids to come to The Hollywood Food Coalition in-person to see how the bags are handled and distributed. To set up a time, please contact Erin at: erin.lovelace@hofoco.org
There are a few different ways you can get involved!
1. First and foremost, help us make lunches! The Sunday Lunch Drive happens every week. If we do not receive enough bags, some organizations do not get lunches that day. Which means there are tons of people who won’t get fed. So please consider making at least 5-10 bags to help a neighbor in need.
2. If you are unable to make lunches, you can donateto HODG so that we are able to purchase the food and supplies needed to make enough bags.
3. Lastly, you can donate food and supplies to The Hollywood Food Coalition directly. Please contact Erin for more information: erin.lovelace@hofoco.org
If you would like to offer your home to be one of our drop-off locations in Los Angeles, here's how it works:
Our listed Hub Homes around the city are the drop-off location for that neighborhood every week - rain or shine. After everyone drops off their lunch bags on your porch by 11am on Sundays, either you, a friend or a volunteer will drive all of the lunches over to Blessed Sacrament (1511 Cassil Place) in Hollywood. Some weeks we switch to their exchange site down the street at 1223 Vine St. Please check this Instagram post for updates. Once you get there, volunteers with The Hollywood Food Coalition take the bags out of your car and handle the rest! It’s super easy. You can even start a group text with your friends/community to switch drivers every week.
Interested? Email us at hangoutdogood@gmail.com

"The Sidewalk Project has been doing weekly distribution of bagged lunches to Skid Row since early 2020 during the covid pandemic. These weekly services have continued to present day. Hollywood Food Coalition is not only consistent in their mutual aid support, they also are focused on providing dignity, creativity and emotional support with their handmade lunches. Our participants repeatedly tell us our lunches are the best out there. We have expanded services in this past year with Hollywood Food Co support to include MacArthur Park/Westlake, a neighborhood that has repeatedly been passed over for infrastructure and basic needs services. We are proud of our ongoing collaboration and the thousands of meals we have distributed together throughout the years." -Soma, The Sidewalk Project

“My name is Claudia, and I am the Program Manager for the Drop In Center here at the Village Family Services. We currently pick up the lunchbags every Sunday, and our youth love this lunchbags, as they are so practical for them to grab as they have everything they need starting from food, snacks, and hygiene kits. These lunch bags are great to receive as our funding is very limited and we don’t have the flexibility to buy snacks all the time. These lunch bags are great to have as they last till mid week and youth enjoy receive them every week. Thank you so much for all the continue donations, (Bonnie) has been amazing and is always going out of her way to assist our Drop In Center program with not only food, but clothing donations as well, as a nonprofit organization, program relies on receiving donations, and having snacks for the youth everyday by receiving these lunch bags is amazing!” -Claudia, The Village Family Services

“I have to tell you I climbed down to the LA River last Sunday to deliver lunch bags to a family that had lost their RV and were camping out down there.
BONNIE!! Your bags always open the door. I'm hooking them up with my friend Ann a fellow outreach worker whose brother owns a construction business. The husband is a construction worker and the wife a carpenter. They have three kids, one a cancer survivor. They now have work and we are getting them in housing. I'm so happy about this one I can't tell you. I have quite a few in tents and rvs with kids but this one was breaking my heart. The child's cancer gutted their finances and their hearts. But those doggone sandwich bags are all the calling card I need to get a conversation going. Thank you sweetheart. Just CRYING.....” -Joan Howard, Food On Foot