Every week since immigration raids began, workers with the nonprofit Legacy LA have distributed free boxes of fruits and vegetables in Ramona Gardens, a low-income housing complex in Boyle Heights.
Rosa, a 60-year-old woman who has lived in Ramona Gardens for more than two decades, is grateful she doesn’t have to venture far for groceries. “When we go outside, we do so with fear that the migra is going to get you,” she said in Spanish.
On Wednesday, she picked up her box filled with celery, blackberries, bell peppers, and tomatoes, and thought about how she could make it last all week.
“There’s a lot of need in the community. Everything is so expensive in the supermarkets,” she said. If it wasn’t for this service, she said, “I don’t know where I’d get my groceries.”
A food desert strained by fear
Long considered a food desert, Ramona Gardens has few locations where residents can purchase fresh and affordable produce. Now, in the midst of immigration raids across L.A.’s Latino communities, accessing groceries has become that much harder for immigrants relying on public transportation.
In Ramona Gardens, the only places to shop for produce are the 99 Cents store and Nico’s Market, where residents say prices are often inflated. The nearest supermarket can be a 15-minute drive.
“Some residents don’t have cars, or they’re older,” said Cecilia Garcia, a career readiness coordinator with Legacy LA. “Some don’t know how to drive and rely on public transportation. A lot of them don’t know how to use Instacart or DoorDash to have groceries delivered to them.”
A lifeline for the community
For Ramona Gardens, donated produce from the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles has been a lifeline.
Garcia and her co-workers pick up donated vegetables and fruits from the Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA every Wednesday morning.
They bring it back to Legacy LA in Ramona Gardens and sort the produce into boxes, which they later distribute to residents who either walk by or who specifically leave their homes to pick up the scheduled delivery.
“I took the initiative to go out into the community and look for food banks and look for those resources,” Garcia said.
Garcia grew up in Ramona Gardens and knows the struggles associated with living in a food desert. “That, in itself, carries a lot of barriers for the community. Then, when the raids hit, it intensified those needs,” she said.
When the raids first began, Legacy LA received a wave of donations — not just produce but diapers, canned foods, cleaning supplies, and other household items. “As of right now, that kind of has died down for us,” she said.
As donations slow, families still wait
Other organizations in the Eastside have stepped in, too. The Eastside Immigrant Families Mutual Aid Fund, run by InnerCity Struggle, has helped several dozens of families impacted by the raids, but their donations have also slowed.
Chloe Garcia, a civic engagement organizer with InnerCity Struggle, said the fund initially raised $80,000 and helped more than 90 households with $500 each. It also provided groceries for 100 families. “There’s definitely still a need for groceries,” she said, adding they’re waiting for more donations to help people on their waiting list.
As families remain in need, advocates fear the situation could get worse after the Supreme Court cleared the way for federal immigration agents to continue sweeping immigration operations in Los Angeles.
In response to the ruling, Raíces con Voz: Latinos in Public Health, a nonprofit that originated in Boyle Heights, held an emergency food drive on Saturday in El Sereno and delivered food to about 50 families.
Just days after the ruling, Cecilia Garcia saw fewer people picking up their produce boxes. She wondered if fear was keeping them away.
“[In] Latino communities, it’s very hard for us to ask for support when we’re struggling, and a lot of the families, they’re facing that right now,” she said.
“What we do here at Legacy is we tell our families, ‘Hey, we do this once a week. … We just ask them one time, ‘Is this going to be an ongoing service that you are going to require?’ If they say yes, then we already know that every week we need to deliver fresh produce to them,” Garcia added.
Learn more
Grocery boxes are available on Wednesdays from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. outside the Ramona Gardens housing complex. For more information, contact Legacy LA at (323) 847-2600.
