Helping Los Angeles Feel Full

With Riviera Resident Nate Berman as Executive Director, High School-Run Feeling Full LA Works to Connect Leftover Items With People Experiencing Food Insecurity

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

When the founder of Feeling Full LA saw how much food and produce is thrown out on a daily basis at places like restaurants, while, at the same time, how many people across Los Angeles County are experiencing food insecurity, he knew he wanted to do something.

Connecting the dots—and the people to the food—the high school student-run organization, now with Riviera resident Nate Berman, a senior at Crossroads, serving as executive director, aims to fight food insecurity and food waste.

“As high school students with jobs in the restaurant industry, we see the disturbing amount of food waste that happens every day,” according to the FFLA website. “Knowing that millions of people in Los Angeles also face food insecurity, we set out to find a comprehensive solution for both of these problems.”

Volunteers pick up leftover food from area partners, including restaurants, stores and farmers market, that would otherwise have been thrown away and then bring it to people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity.

“We donate 100% of the food and produce we receive to various local food banks and homeless shelters,” the website continued.

Berman, who has lived in the Palisades since he was 6 years old, started at Pacific Palisades Farmers Market, where he said he saw “produce, usually with only slight imperfections,” being thrown out at the end of the Sunday market. He began collecting and donating the produce each week, eventually merging his operations with the original founder of FFLA, Shaylan Chadha—now a freshman at Northwestern University.

At the time of FFLA’s founding, Chadha, a graduate of Palisades Charter High School, was working at a bakery in Brentwood, noting the amount of quality food that was being thrown out.

“Every day, his employer would throw out … really good bread and pastries, just because of the bakery’s policy,” Berman explained. “One day, he was closing and was taking the bread out to the dumpster as per usual. By coincidence, it was Mother’s Day and his family was having dinner in Santa Monica that evening, so he asked his manager if he could take the leftover bread home to donate to the homeless population (with the help of his family) in Santa Monica.”

When Chadha did this and saw the look of gratitude on the faces of the people he interacted with, Berman said, he realized he could do the same thing on a larger scale. He set out to contact local food banks and bakeries, as well as ask friends to help with pickups and donating leftover food—a process that eventually evolved into Feeling Full LA.

“It is estimated that one in five Los Angeles residents suffer from food insecurity,” according to FFLA. “That’s over two million people. At the same time, 4,000 tons of food are wasted every single day in LA County.”

FFLA, which was founded in summer 2021, has partnered with several local entities, including Upward Bound House, Cookie Good, Belwood Bakery, Bagel Nosh, Nourish LA, Bruin Dine, Jyan Isaac Bread, UCLA Bruins, St. Joseph Center and Arnett Farms. In the Palisades, FFLA works with Noah’s Bagels.

In addition to Berman, other students who are involved include Josh Huang, a fellow senior at Crossroads, who is the director of outreach and design: “He set up our website, manages our Instagram, designed our logos and shirts, and takes photos,” Berman explained.

Rocco Fama, also a senior at Crossroads, is FFLA’s head of deliveries, coordinating pickups each week.

To date, FFLA has collected and donated more than 25,000 pounds of baked food and fresh produce. A growing group 15-plus high school volunteers make weekly pickups, including at the Palisades and Brentwood farmers markets, in addition to partner cafes and restaurants.

Most of the donations received from the farmers markets go toward Nourish LA, which hosts a pop-up event each Sunday in Sawtelle where hundreds of people line up to receive free, high-quality food.

“It is also really rewarding to see our food get distributed to people in need in real time,” Berman said. “I love getting to see the smile on someone’s face as they bite into a brownie or someone’s eyes light up when they get a fresh box of strawberries.”

Donations also support Westside Food Bank in Santa Monica and the UCLA Food Bank.

FFLA received the Neighborhood Youth Ambassador Award, given by Upward Bound House. The group received a tour of the facility from CEO Christine Mirasy-Glasco where they were able to meet some of the families, which Berman described as “really impactful.”

“It’s been amazing getting to know some families through Upward Bound House and Nourish LA—[I] especially love the opportunity to put faces and stories to the issue we are trying to improve,” Berman said. “Again, seeing people smile after receiving delicious baked goods or fresh produce never fails to make my day. We are also so thankful for the incredible generosity of the restaurants and vendors that donate to us, and it’s clear that they share our passion for the work we do.”

For those who are interested in helping the organization, FFLA offered a number of ways to get involved, including forming a partnership, volunteering or making a donation. One of its current goals is to connect with new vendors and volunteers.

“If someone knows of a local restaurant that has excess food, please reach out to us and let us know,” Berman said. “We could also always use more volunteers, so if anyone is open to doing some pickups and drop-offs, that would be really helpful.”

Berman also suggested supporting the restaurants and vendors that already work with FFLA, and showing them gratitude.

“Roughly one-third of food produced in the world is wasted, while so many people face food insecurity at the same time,” Berman said. “Spreading the word about food waste in general is really important.”

For more information, visit feelingfullla.org or email Berman via nate.feelingfullla@gmail.com.