Labor Community Services - 2021 Year In Review

LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

YEAR IN REVIEW 2021

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter From Our Executive Director

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Our Impact - By The Numbers

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Fighting Food Insecurities

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Answering The Call For Help

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Vaccinating Our Communities

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Thanking Our Dedicated Volunteers

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Honoring Our Heroes

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Thank You To Our Sponsors

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LCS Board of Directors & Sta

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

Letter From Our Executive Director When the COVID-19 Pandemic hit our communities in March 2020, nobody had any idea of how profoundly it would impact our families would be.

From March 2020 through the end of 2021, Labor Community Services had hosted 167 community food distributions, helping over 165,000 families directly who had been facing food insecurities. It is a daunting number, especially when we re lected on how quickly we had to come together as an organization, rally our community partners and organize food distributions throughout Southern California. We’re thankful to our partners at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank in working closely with us to reach that goal. To date, Labor Community Services has distributed over $2 million in food in our communities.

As we continued to battle this Pandemic, we began to see hope as vaccines were being developed and inally approved, giving us a vital resource in the ight against COVID-19. Through our collaboration with St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, we were able to to provide the vaccinations to over 20,000 Angelenos, mostly front line essential workers, seniors and communities of color. These e orts have made a huge impact in slowing down the spread of the virus amongst the vaccinated and we are blessed to have been able to help provide our neighbors with protection they rightfully deserve.

As we began to wrap the year, LCS brought together our volunteers, sponsors and our community partners, to thank and celebrate their invaluable contributions to our work in 2021.

Our inaugural signature event was launched in the middle of the Pandemic to recognize and honor exceptional work of community and organizational leaders. We named it in honor of labor leader and trailblazer Dolores Huerta, calling it The Dolores Huerta Spirit Awards. This year, we honored Michael Flood, CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Food bank and Jim Mangia, CEO of the St John’s Family and Wellness Center for their exceptional work during this pandemic. We recognized and awarded our brother Mike Garcia, who we miss daily, with a posthumous award recognizing his lifetime of commitment and dedication to the labor movement.

We look ahead at 2022 knowing that we must continue to stand with our brothers and sisters in our communities who will need our help to get through the rough times. That is what Labor Community Services is all about.

Armando Olivas Executive Director Labor Community Services

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Our Impact - By The Numbers In March 2020 when our city’s hotel workers began to get laid o from their jobs, Labor Community Services knew that something had to be done to help those workers in need.

Little did we know that this was only the beginning. Soon after, sector after sector of workers began to feel the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, seeing unemployment rise and seeing our country’s economy experience struggles that had not been seen since the Great Depression. With only a few days notice, food distribution events were organized and lines of vehicles stretching for miles could be seen. Those visuals in the news best told the impact being felt by our working families and how much our assistance was making a di erence for those who most needed it. As we close the books on 2021, we can more clearly grasps where the areas of need continue to be even as we approach 2 years into this pandemic.

LCS’ impact was not only felt through our food distributions.

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

Our Rent/Mortgage & Utilities Assistance Program provided direct inancial assistance for those who were facing economic hardships due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This assistance was crucial for those who needed direct inancial relief to get caught up with bills that impacted their family’s quality of life. Working with our labor union liaisons, we have been able to provide hope to these families at a time when it was needed the most.

When we compile the monetary value of the assistance provided to our families, the total value is over $2.3 million.

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

Fighting Food Insecurities

For LCS, it is important that we are able to help any family in need, regardless of where they may be. But being able to map out our site visits lets us better know how our e orts are having an impact regionally.

The map above shows a summary of the locations in Southern California where food distributions have taken place since March 2020. Many of the locations were frequented several times because we continued to see great demand for food assistance. But in 2021, we expanded into new communities like Baldwin Park, City Terrace and MidWilshire, as the long-lasting impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic did not spare any community. These events were a huge undertaking, which was only made possible through our collaborative e orts with labor unions, community groups and organizations

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and community leaders who stepped up to the plate and take on organizing roles within their communities to help bring relief to the families in need.

Here are just a few photos from our 2021 food distributions

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

Answering The Call For Help But beyond food distributions in Southern California, LCS was called into action in other emergency relief e orts that required prompt action and lawless execution to ensure that those who needed our help could receive it quickly and in a timely manner.

On February 23, LCS, in collaboration with The LA Fed, the Red Cross Los Angeles Chapter and Teamsters Joint Council 42, jumped into action to help families in Texas who were battling a devastating Winter storm. This relief e ort sent 800 cases of water and over 600 36-lb boxes of food that assisted hundreds of families who were in desperate need of help. This e ort was a carefully planned and coordinated with multiple partners dealing with some of the most intense Winter storms in our country. From coordinating resources from our warehouse with the Red Cross to transporting the relief aid and coordinating the distribution of the food and water onsite, Labor Community Services was there.

Relief e orts are not only during times of natural disasters, but also during labor strikes.

At its core, Labor Community Services came from a need to have resources. In May 2021, workers at Stratas Foods in Fresno, California were locked out of their jobs after the company had failed to negotiate a new labor agreement with its workers. The lockout left many families out on the street with immediate help for relief. That is when Labor Community Services packed up the truck to transport food relief to the families on strike.

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

Several trips have taken place since then, knowing that we had a responsibility to help our brothers and sisters who were ighting for what they rightfully deserved.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, one of the most vulnerable sector of workers have been our farmworkers. Day in and day out, they are out in the ields (often with minimal to no PPE provided from their employers) creating unnecessary health hazards for our farmworkers and our country’s food supply. So when LCS found out that Red Cross sta were in need of help in transporting PPE masks and resources to the Dolores Huerta Foundation, LCS stepped into action to facilitate the delivery of the PPE items to the Central Valley. We knew the urgency in the request for help and were honored to help facilitate the delivery of these much-needed resources.

During the Holidays when many of us found ourselves celebrating the time with our families and loved ones, over 100 workers at Jon Donaire Desserts found themselves out on the picket line as the company had failed to negotiate in good faith a new labor agreement. With the current contract expiring in July, workers began their labor strike on Nov 3rd.

Through the strike, support and momentum has been building up in support of the members from Bakers Local 37 Workers, from local, county and state o icials to members from other labor unions.

LCS and The LA Fed as been making weekly visit to the striking workers, bringing them food and toys for the holidays along with gift cards and turkeys. LCS is committed, along The LA Fed, to support the workers until they reach a contract agreement with their employer.

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

Vaccinating Our Communities

When it was announced by the Food and Drug Administration that vaccines were approved for use by the general public against the COVID-19 virus, systems were put in place to attempt to roll out access to the vaccination. Unfortunately, problems with registration systems and e orts by many individuals to circumvent the priority lists created a lack of access to the vaccine for our frontline workers, our seniors and our communities of color. Thankfully, those communities could depend on organizations such as St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, who worked diligently day and night to ensure that their vaccines were going to the right communities.

Quickly, LCS and St. John’s began to partner up and host dual food distributions and community vaccinations, allowing for families to

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

get the food assistance they needed while also being able to receive the vaccine free of charge.

LCS and St. John’s kicked o this new partnership by co-hosting the “Labor of Love” food distribution and vaccination event at The LA Fed, where people waited for hours to ensure that they were able to get the vaccine. We had such a huge demand for the vaccinations that St John’s made appointments for the following week for those who could not be helped that day. These events were a huge success and requests came in from throughout Southern California for LCS and St. John’s to co-host similar events in their neighborhoods, such as South Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and many more communities where it was needed.

In 2021, St. John's opened 26 vaccination sites and launched the largest vaccination campaign by a community health center in the country. To date, St. John’s has administered over 275,000 doses and counting with 94% of those vaccinated being lowincome people of color.

With the dedicated sta at St. John’s, we have been able to serve as a life net for so many families throughout Southern California and we look forward to continuing to work with one another.

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Thanking Our Dedicated Volunteers

When the COVID-19 Pandemic struck our communities, we saw a need to step into action and become a line of support for unemployed union families throughout Southern California. This e ort has not been easy, but we were able to overcome every obstacle because of our dedicated sta and volunteers who have made sacri ices to ensure that other families would have the food and assistance that they needed. It is that kind of dedication and commitment that is at the heart of what makes Labor Community Services so special and why elected o icials, labor unions and community leaders look to our leadership and guidance when it is most needed.

On Saturday, August 7th, Labor Community Services hosted a luncheon at Bruce's Prime Rib and Spirits in Santa Fe Springs to honor these volunteers who are our heroes! Along with the luncheon, our special guests were presented with framed photos taken throughout our community food distributions and neighborhood vaccination clinics, along with certi icate of recognition from the o ices of State Senator Maria Elena Durazo and LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis and the LA Fed provided them a pair of tickets to Union Night at Dodger Stadium!

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

Honoring Our Heroes

On Saturday, September 25, 2021 from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and in partnership with Labor Community Services hosted the First Annual Dolores Huerta Spirit Awards. For safety precautions, we opted to host this event online so that we can provide a safe environment to all participants to celebrate our distinguished Labor Icons Dolores Huerta and the late Mike Garcia.

The online event included red carpet photo opportunities for participants, along with the opportunity to interact with other attendees through the use of our virtual chat rooms.

During the program, distinguished guests speakers, as US Senator Alex Padilla, State Senator Maria Elena Durazo and LA City Council President Nury Martinez spoke about the LCS’ work in the community on behalf of working families.

In addition, our night’s awardees - Michael Flood, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and Jim Mangia, President and CEO of St. John’s Well Child and Family Center - spoke about their respective organizations’ commitments to helping families. Their partnerships with LCS made our work in the community possible for that we are eternally grateful to them and their dedicated sta .

Lastly, we were honored to have SEIU-USWW President David Huerta speak on behalf of our brother, Mike Garcia and Dolores Huerta herself speak to the power of standing up for what you believe in and ighting for those whose voices are being unheard.

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

Thank You To Our Sponsors

PLATINUM

DIAMOND

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SILVER PepsiCo SoCalGas Company Kaiser Permanente AFSCME 3299 721 Retiree Committee Kaufman Legal Group Librarians' Guild AFSCME Local 2626 IATSE Local 705 MP Costumers UFCW Local 1428 AFSCME Local 685 Probation UA Local 761 Plumbers & Fitters

UAW Region Local 8 CWA District 9 Richard Bloom for Assembly California Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) Congressmen Ted Lieu Roofers Local 36 Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, City of Los Angeles California Labor Federation UnitedHealthcare - Public Sector, Labor & Trust

BRONZE AFGE District 12 AFGE Local 1061 AFGE Local 2429 AFSCME Local 3090 AFSCME Local 3672 AFSCME Local 3672 L.A. City Executive AFT Local 1521A College Staff Guild AFT Local 6041 Hawthorne Federation American Fed. of Musicians Local 47 Assemblywoman Luz Rivas Congressmember Karen Bass CSEA 477 FORUM IATSE Local 839, The Animation Guild IBEW Local 45 Lisa Calderon For Assembly

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

MAPA AFSCME Local 1001 Marine Engineer's Beneficial Association PCD-1 AFL-CIO NALC BR 24 Teamsters Local 2010 Teamsters Local 911 Teamsters Joint Council 42 Teamsters Local 1932 Teamsters Local 2010 Teamsters Local 63 Teamsters Local 630 Teamsters Local 848 Teamsters Local 911 Teamsters Local Union No.542 WSRJB Workers United SEIU

SPECIAL RECOGNITION

CONGRESSMAN BRAD SHERMAN

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LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

LABOR COMMUNITY SERVICES - YEAR IN REVIEW - 2021

LCS Board of Directors & Staff

BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Lawrence Brown, Jr.

Vice President Kathleen Yasuda

Secretary Nancy Oshima

Treasurer Justin Wesson

National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 24

Los Angeles College Faculty Guild

LA County Fed (Retired)

LA County Fed

Dooner

Deliana Speights UFWC 1428

The Salvation Army

David Greene

Chanchanit Martorell

Sandra Hernandez

Art Directors Guild IATSE 800

SEIU 721

Tom Csekey SEIU 2015

Thai Community Development Center

Rex Pritchard

Long Beach Fire Fighters IAFF Local 372

Pilar Buelna

CSEA 477

Chris Griswald

Teamsters Local 986

STAFF Sara Roschdi Program Manager

Armando Olivas Executive Director Taro O’Sullivan LCS Consultant

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Pilar Arrellano Pantry Coordinator Ulisses Sanchez Communications Consultant

Ronald Perez Warehouse Aide