Food for Comrades was founded in 2021 by members of Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid (PUMA), an abolitionist care network based on the westside of LA. At the time of our creation, PUMA was hosting Power-Up tables with resources and supplies for unhoused community members. Organizers noticed very quickly that meals were always the first item to go, and that they never had enough of them. Another common question they came across was “Is the food hot?” The need for hot meals that people could enjoy was the basis for Food for Comrades’ origin.

Hunger is an issue manufactured by capitalism. It exists only due to exploitation and greed. Globally 30-40% of all food created is trashed. While some countries have issues with their supply chain, mostly all of the food trashed in the US is to keep prices artificially high. Perfectly good food is rotting in landfills and emitting methane into our atmosphere while people starve, all in the name of capitalism. This an environmental disaster and a humanitarian crisis. We full-heartedly reject the commodification of food.

Our work creates a new food system free of commodification. To date, we’ve recovered over 120,000 pounds of food. In 2025, we made over 18,000 meals for our community.