“It all started when I was driving through Anaheim and noticed day after day the poverty all around me. I knew that I needed to do something about it,” recalls Arlene Mercer, founder of the non-profit organization Food Finders. Twenty years later, Food Finder provides 50,000 meals a day to people in need, sharing over 76 million pounds of food with the greater Los Angeles and Orange County areas.
Essentially, Food Finders stems from two modern-day challenges: 1) Many restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores throw away perfectly good food every day that can still be eaten; and 2) food banks and homeless shelters are always in need of more food. The challenge for Mercer is to bridge the gap in-between. In her first year, Mercer—working out of her home with the help of family and friends—transported over 1,000 pounds of food per month to three Long Beach needs-focused organizations.
“Love is the answer to everything” she says, smiling. Now based out of Food Finders’ main office off Wardlow and Atlantic, Mercer is preparing for the holiday season. “There are too many people falling through the cracks,” she explains. “We seek not just to feed people, but to help them to build a better life.” Over 150 volunteers assist her in picking up and delivering food and helping out at Food Finders’ thrift stores. Even so, Mercer recognizes that Food Finders alone can barely scratch the surface of poverty in the city. “There is so much more need and so much food being wasted. I believe that together we have the power to do more for our neighbors.” SCOTT JONES
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