- Valley View News
The Dream Center Feeds LA During Coronavirus
Updated: Nov 1, 2020
LOS ANGELES, CA - The COVID-19 outbreak has changed many lives. With the limiting of social gatherings and the nationwide stay-at-home orders — many people have been left vulnerable and food insecure.
The Dream Center in Downtown Los Angeles has stepped up to provide over 11,000 meals a day to the people of LA. Residents can drive-thru or walk-up to the Dream Center’s food drive and receive a hot meal and some necessary groceries for free. They also developed a delivery service to deliver meals and groceries to the elderly in Los Angeles who cannot leave their homes due to the virus.
The Dream Center is a Christian-based non-profit organization that serves those in need like homeless populations, emancipated youth, gang members, and rehabilitating prisoners with food, housing, religious support, and employment opportunities.
The organization, founded in 1994, helps thousands of Angelenos everyday with an indoor cafeteria and walk-up eatery for homeless or low-income communities. But as social distancing has forced the community and businesses to shut down, the Dream Center needed a way to continue and even pump up their efforts in this time of crisis.
Just moments after Mayor Eric Garcetti announced LAUSD would be closing its doors, the Dream Center prepared flyers to pass out as students were released to as many schools as they could, letting them know the Dream Center would provide them meals if they need.
Many students depend on meals provided by schools, as 80 percent of LAUSD students live at or below the poverty line.
With the help of some local celebrities, like LA Dodgers player Justin Turner and the Justin Turner Foundation, the Dream Center was even able to provide residents with hot meals from local restaurants, paid for by Justin Turner and his wife Kourtney.
Tatiana Galvez works with the Dream Center and helps deliver meals to the elderly communities nearby. She’s born and raised in LA and says she started working with the Dream Center because she sees the need in her city, and says they have a huge impact.
Many of the elderly that receive meals are grateful for the Dream Center deliveries, and go out of their way to show their appreciation. One woman created a card out of cardboard and a sharpie, because she cannot go out her home to buy a card. She taped two candy canes in the shape of a heart and wrote “Thank you Dream Center...You are making Jesus very proud and happy”.
By Brittany Smith
Contributions by Daily News, LAUSD, DreamCenter.org
Photo by Brittany Smith
Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz
Video by Brittany Smith
Video by Brittany Smith
Audio by Brittany Smith
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