Bill, Betsy & Bracken's Kitchen Fight Hunger & Poverty In Our Own Backyard.

On a typical Sunday we frequent the farmer's market down the street from our apartment with the goal of loading up on seasonal vegetables for the first half of the week. In the event they are carrying only the basics (broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts) and we're actually on the hunt for specifics (kohlrabi, romanescu, dandelion greens) we simply pop one neighborhood over, where blocks upon blocks are closed from 7am to 2pm every Sunday so the people of West LA can buy from local farmers, ranchers and purveyors. We bask in the options, often discussing the privilege of living in agriculturally driven, sunny California where food deserts can't possibly exist and children are privy to an abundance of kale, avocados and homemade granola. There's certainly no hunger in our backyard!

Wrong.

There are nearly 400,000 people who struggle with hunger in Orange County and one in five children are at risk of hunger each month. The government’s Free and Reduced Lunch Plan (FRLP) is the best available indicator of the number of children living in poverty in a community. It has recorded that in Orange County 49% of school age children are on the free and reduced lunch plan at school. In LA County that number jumps to 58%.