Vehicles line up in to receive food boxes at the West Covina Civic Center on Tuesday December 29, 2020. An estimated 2,000 families will receive food provided by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and the office of LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Hundreds of families received food and supplies at the West Covina Civic Center on Tuesday morning, Dec. 29.
The West Covina Regional Food Distribution program was a collaboration of efforts from West Covina, Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. They passed out food and supplies to 2,500 families.
West Covina City Councilmember Tony Wu said he was shocked to see how many people showed up for food and supplies.
“I showed up before 8, the lines were really long,” Wu said. “A lot of people need help.”
West Covina Mayor Letty Lopez-Viado said she expected thousands of people to show up. All five members of the City Council, Mayor Pro Tem Dario Castellanos, Brian Tabatabai and Rosario Diaz, Wu and Lopez-Viado were at the Civic Center to help pass out food.
“There’s a lot of need and we’re happy to help people,” Lopez-Viado said.
Wu said Michael Flood, the CEO and president of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, was responsible for collecting funds and resources from private donors to provide enough food and supplies for the 2,500 families that came to the food distribution program.
“The majority is from private sector, a little bit from government, county, state, not that much,” Wu said. “But most of that is from private sector.”
Wu said the pandemic has resulted in people in West Covina losing their jobs and businesses going bankrupt. He noticed how many people in the community are in need of assistance.
“They have to eat. Not everybody can get a PPP, this stimulus check, a lot of people, they don’t get it. This is a big help to them,” Wu said. “People really need help. It’s going to take some time. Right now we just have to feed the hungry and give people hope.”
Wu added that he wants to continue to provide people in need in the community with more food distribution programs.
“We have to continue to help,” Wu said. “It’s easy to say it’s a disease, people die and people get sick. You can see more than that. It’s deeper. The economy is destroyed and people have no food. It’s scary. We need to step up in these tough times. This food bank showing up, I’m touched. We have to continue to help.”