A few months ago, when federal food assistance lapsed during the October government shutdown, a 57-year-old acupuncturist named Ellisa Alvarez made a simple offer of kindness on social media.
Alvarez, a former chef, knew many of her neighbors in Long Beach — where 1 in 5 residents rely on food stamps — were struggling to keep food on the table, so she resolved to help whoever she could.
“If you and or your family need a meal prepared for you — message me,” she wrote in a local Facebook group. “I will cook you a meal and bring it to you. Guilt free. Stress free. Made with love.”
She only expected to get responses from a few people, but hundreds reached out asking for a home-cooked meal. Even after the government reopened and food benefits resumed flowing, demand has remained. That single Facebook post has now grown into the Long Beach Food Coalition, a nonprofit organization Alvarez soon founded to feed the community with meals made with “flavor and love.”
“We truly believe that we’re building a community one meal at a time. This isn’t charity, this is getting food to where it’s supposed to be,” she said.
For the past several months, Alvarez has prepared home-cooked meals for about a hundred people every week out of her small apartment kitchen, distributing food from a local park and delivering to those who can’t make it to the distribution site on Sundays.
People who need a meal can fill out a simple Google Form located on the Long Beach Food Coalition’s website. No proof of income or identification is required, and anyone can receive food.
“You could be driving a Mercedes and lost your job this morning. Your tax return could say $350,000 and your house burned down yesterday. I don’t care. If you need a meal, we’re gonna give you a meal. We don’t judge,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez recognizes that many people who need help don’t qualify to receive food stamps or are unable to cook for themselves. These are the type of people she hopes to help the most.
“We want to be there for those people who just fall through the cracks,” she said.
The Long Beach Food Coalition is currently completely donation-based, and Alvarez uses whatever she has available to her from these gifts. She joked that it’s like being on “Chopped” or “Top Chef,” where contestants do their best to make cohesive meals out of sometimes disparate ingredients.
“It’s like, ‘Okay, we have a can of sardines, six pounds of rice, 12 pounds of pinto beans and an egg. What are we gonna make this week?’” Alvarez said.
She aims to provide everyone with at least one large-portion meal that can easily be split into two meals. Whenever possible, she wants to give everyone a main dish, a soup, a salad, another side, and a dessert.
“Our goal is to really take care of them. We really want people to be able to eat,” she said.
Some weeks, when the Long Beach Food Coalition receives a lot of donations, Alvarez is able to provide a full week’s worth of food. Other weeks, she can only make a couple of side dishes.
Until recently, Alvarez did almost all of the cooking from her own kitchen and had about 10 regular volunteers helping with deliveries and preparing some of the food.
After burning out nearly every kitchen appliance she owned, Alvarez was forced to scale back how many meals she could make a week, going from 300 to roughly 100.
Recently, 10 more volunteers signed up to help cook or deliver meals, and Bayshore Church in Belmont Shore has agreed to let the Long Beach Food Coalition use their kitchen two to three times a week.
The increase in volunteers and the ability to use a larger kitchen will allow the Long Beach Food Coalition to serve more meals and, once again, serve nearly 300 people a week.
In the future, Alvarez hopes to expand even more with the dream of everyone having access to a full meal. She also hopes their kitchen could also be a space for youth to learn how to cook while volunteering in their community.
More information about how to get involved with the Long Beach Coalition or how to get home-cooked meals can be found on the organization’s website.