World Harvest Food Bank a 501(c)3 organization was founded by Glen Curado in 2007. Mr. Curado, a community leader and entrepreneur, was volunteering at a local food bank in 2006. He saw the need and how things could be improved. Glen credits God to being the reason why he’s opened a food bank and farm with the goal to End World Hunger. The first site was opened in the impoverished area of Pico-Union and World Harvest goals includes to continue to grow in multiple surrounding areas. Mr. Curado’s leadership skills were honed as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and he quickly put them to good use. World Harvest outgrew the Pico facility in 2014 and relocated to our current home in Los Angeles, CA which we have already outgrown.
Provide food, basic staples and living essentials to people who are at risk of hunger and to the needy.
Glen Curado founded World Harvest Food Bank in 2007 with a desire to help feed the hungry and play a role in the effort to decrease food waste in America.
Today, World Harvest Food Bank provides nutritious, mainly organic, food items to more than 500,000 individuals and 75,000 families each year. Nearly 40% of the people served by the World Harvest Food Bank network are children, another 8.1% are elderly, and 31.8% of the families are working but struggling.
We currently distribute an average of 25 million pounds of food through our facility and our 200+ partner agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and after school programs for children.
Our model for providing food items to our participating families is the following:
Each family is provided with one grocery basket full of food items each time they visit World Harvest Charities and Family Services.
Our funding comes from various sources and is mostly comprised of individuals and corporations.
Year over year, our funding has decreased by 10 percent and our client base has grown from 60,000 in 2017 to over 75,000 in 2018.
We work with the following major grocery stores and food distributors in Los Angeles to access food items that would otherwise go to waste:
• Whole Foods
• Trader Joes
• Erewhon
• Bristle Farms
• Sprouts
• CVS
• Costco
• Gelson’s Market
We partner with the following City of Los Angeles government agencies:
• Public Works
• United Neighbors Neighborhood Council
• P.I.C.O Neighborhood Council
Under the RecycLA program, in December of 2017 Republic Services and World Harvest partnered to find ways to reduce food waste in Los Angeles.
We partner with the following waste management companies as part of our work with RecycleLA:
• NASA Services
• Republic Services
• L.A. Zoo
We employ 12 full-time staff and 4 part-time staff and 75% of our staff is made up of women.
90% of our staff is bilingual speaking languages including but not limited to; Spanish, Tagalog, Mandarin and Taiwanese.
We receive the support of over 2,600 volunteers each year. These individuals donate more than 10,000 hours to World Harvest Food Bank and come from the corporate sector, partnering non-profits, the food service industry & religious organizations.
