The Brief

In the weeks before the longest government shutdown in American history came to a close, food banks and meal programs in the Los Angeles area scrambled to serve a rush of people looking for help, including many older adults.

Hundreds of households signed up for food pantries as SNAP benefits stalled and government workers went without paychecks. More people aged 65 and older turned to senior meal programs for daily lunches.

Even though the government has reopened, some leaders of local food organizations say they don’t expect to see a drop in demand anytime soon, particularly with the holidays approaching.

The government funding bill signed Nov. 12 is “only a temporary fix,” according to Eli Veitzer, president and CEO of Jewish Family Service LA. He told LAist the organization is trying to prepare for the possibility of another government shutdown next year.

“We know the drill, we've done this before,” he said. “We know how to flex and expand hours and delivery, but that's really about all that we can do at this point.”

Veitzer and others said the outpouring of donations and volunteers to outreach organizations helped get them through the crisis in the short term, but that’s not sustainable in the long term.

As uncertainty lingers, L.A.-area organizations are keeping food flowing with non-government support, including expanded partnerships with local grocery stores or private donors, thousands of additional volunteers and community contributions.

How we got here

During the government shutdown, which started in early October, the Department of Agriculture froze funding for SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, beginning Nov. 1.

NPR reports it was the first time that’s happened since the program was established.

California, with more than 20 other states, sued the Trump administration over its “unlawful refusal to fund SNAP/CalFresh benefits … despite possessing funds to support this critical program for the month of November,” according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. CalFresh is California’s version of the SNAP program.

Court rulings ordered funding for SNAP to continue, at least partially. The Trump administration initially said it would comply and then appealed.

Then, the government reopened.

The bill passed by Congress funds the government until Jan. 30, with carveouts for SNAP, which will be funded through September 2026.

Angelenos in need

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank saw an immediate surge in demand in October, as people were notified that their benefits would be delayed in November, according to CEO Michael Flood.

The organization saw a 24% jump in people coming for food assistance, Flood told LAist, with some of the food bank’s more than 600 partner agencies across L.A. County reporting even higher increases.

“We have more than 1.5 million people in Los Angeles County who those benefits are critical to them to feed themselves and feed their families,” Flood said. “It's led to a lot of just uncertainty, concern, and just worry about, you know, am I going to be able to get enough help in order to feed myself.”

People waiting in line to receive free groceries in the aftermath of the federal government shutdown which caused SNAP/CalFresh food benefits delays. It was hosted by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and L.A. County officials.

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Mario Tama

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Getty Images North America

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People receive free food boxes at a November food distribution event hosted by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and L.A. County officials.

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Mario Tama

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Getty Images North America

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Jewish Family Service LA’s food pantries serve about 10,000 households a year, according to Veitzer. He said they added more than 1,000 households since the organization started to see “huge increases” in demand during the same time period.

There was also about a 15% rise in the number of older adults turning to the organization’s senior meal programs for hot lunches every day.

Older adults trying to make ends meet

Jane Jefferies, 70, lives out of her car in the West L.A. area and told LAist the $24 a month she receives for CalFresh was not disrupted during the shutdown. But she regularly relies on senior meal programs and local food banks to stretch that money as far as she can.

“If I run out of money, then I have something extra that I can spend at the market for a meal,” Jefferies said, adding that she typically uses the benefits to buy bananas or a day-old loaf of bread for $1.50.

An 80-year-old woman from Santa Monica, who asked not to be identified, said she lives in low-income senior housing and receives about $140 a month through CalFresh, which covers a little less than half of her monthly food allowance.

She said she felt anxious and uncertain about how she was going to put food on the table if benefits lapsed, especially as food banks can be difficult to access with her mobility, transportation and medical dietary-restrictions.

“This supposedly is one of the richest countries in the world, and yet people are wondering how they're going to eat,” she told LAist. “It's unfortunate that the people like me don't seem to matter.”

Weathering the storm

Communities and local officials stepped up to help ease some pressure on food organizations during the six-week government shutdown, Veitzer and Flood said.

Jewish Family Service LA raised money to give grocery cards to nearly 1,700 people they serve who may be hardest hit by a loss of benefits, for example.

“We couldn't fully offset it, but we were able to provide significant funds to a lot of people to help keep them tied over during the initial part of the freeze,” Veitzer said.

L.A. County committed $12 million to the L.A. Regional Food Bank in recent weeks, Flood said, which translates into about 6 million pounds of food, or roughly 5.5 million meals. County officials made a similar move during the pandemic in 2020.

The food bank also brought on thousands more volunteers over the course of the year, including in the aftermath of January’s wildfires, from around 25,000 to “well above” 30,000 volunteers, according to Flood.

Jewish Family Service LA partners with a few local Costco’s, Gelson’s Markets, Target and Super King locations to pick-up proteins, produce, dry goods and other necessities for people in need. Veitzer calls it the “grocery store rescue process,” and he said they were able to add two more pickups during the shutdown.

“At the end of the day, donations, volunteers aren't going to supplant the core underpinning of the benefits that people rely on,” he said. “But in the breach, it's made a huge difference.”

Looking ahead

Veitzer doesn’t expect to see a drop in demand anytime soon because “so many people in Los Angeles are financially struggling.”

“They're not making it, and there's no extra give in their systems,” he said. “And so it doesn't take much for a person to end up unable to pay rent, or unable to pay car insurance, or unable to buy food or medicine.”

Veitzer said people have already signed up for future food pantry visits through Jewish Family Service LA’s app.

“So they are anticipating coming back to the pantries even after the SNAP benefits get reinstated,” he said.

The organization is also preparing to more than double the number of Thanksgiving meals it distributes this year from around 800 to 900 households to more than 2,000.

Flood said the financial pressures people face with the high cost of living in L.A. County leads to continually high demand for food assistance, and it’s challenging for organizations to try and fill that “hunger gap” — even without a government shutdown.

“It does feel like we're always kind of chasing, you know, sort of a higher demand that we're doing everything we can to try to fill,” Flood said.

Before last month, a young southern sea otter named Rey would never have imagined she’d be a mother.

That changed when she met Sunny, a pup — about two weeks old — found orphaned and alone on Asilomar State Beach in February. The pairing went off without a hitch.

The two otters now live as mother and daughter at the Aquarium of the Pacific. They arrived at the facility last month, paired together as part of the facility’s surrogacy program that it runs alongside the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The program, created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the 1990s, was launched in Long Beach in 2024. It pairs maternal-age female otters with young, motherless pups who would otherwise not survive on their own in the wild.

Megan Smylie, the sea otter program manager, says the operation has since rehabilitated and released nine otters into the wild, with the three others expected to leave by the summer.

The aquarium can handle 11 otters at a time, with up to seven in the main tank with rehabilitation pools that can each house two otters. They currently have five otters, including two other females that are preparing for surrogate motherhood.

But Sunny and Rey cannot be released into the wild. Experts say both are already too used to being around people and lack the survival instincts to make it on their own in the ocean.

Sunny searches for shrimp in its habitat while two sea otters make their first appearance at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.

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Long Beach Post

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Instead, the two are destined for motherhood in captivity. For Rey, Sunny will be the first pup she raises into adulthood. It’s a full-circle moment for her: About two-and-a-half years old, Rey was found stranded herself in July 2023.

She spent a couple of years at another facility before moving to Long Beach.

“Ray has far surpassed my expectations of what I thought was gonna happen,” Smylie said. “She’s fantastic.”

As a surrogate mom, she’s teaching her adopted baby everything she needs to know to fend for herself, regardless of her inability to return to the wild.

The two were seen manipulating an imitation crab shell and foraging for food. Young otters, because of the thickness and buoyancy of their fur, don’t have the strength to get their furry bodies to the bottom of the water tank.

Otters have the thickest coat of any mammal, with as many as a million hairs per square inch. The hairs trap air, which acts as insulation and helps keep the otters buoyant.

In time, she may teach the pup how to use tools. Sea otters are known to be crafty creatures, able to use rocks to crack clamshells, take nuts off bolts and open doors on their own.

When it’s time to calm down, she’ll groom the pup, and when it’s time for a nap, Rey will pull Sunny to her chest and roll onto her back. The maternal bond in the wild is a strong one, and the pup requires constant attention.

Experts say this quick-forming connection, between that of surrogate-raised otters and their wild offspring, has played a significant role in growing the population found along California’s Central Coast.

The animals, which once boasted a population of more than 300,000 along the Northern Pacific Rim from Japan to Baja California, were prized for their fur and hunted down to about 2,000 by the early 19th Century. Officials say they were thought to have been exterminated until a colony of otters was discovered nearly a decade later.

Now a federally threatened species, California’s southern sea otter population has rebounded to about 3,000. Despite efforts to aid their comeback, the species faces a low survival rate for pups and constant threats of parasites, shark attacks and human-caused catastrophes.

This makes the work of every mothering otter like Rey all the more important, as she is tasked with not only providing pups the childhood she never had but ensuring the preservation of her species.

And while Sunny may never see the ocean again, aquarium staff hope she can grow into a mom herself, giving the next generation of young pups another shot at life.

“That is kind of a happy ending, if maybe a little bittersweet,” Smylie said.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

A few dozen protesters rallied outside of Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s Eagle Rock office Tuesday morning in opposition to a 111-unit apartment complex slated to be built on Huntington Drive in El Sereno.

Residents also say due to the unpermitted demolition at the property, a homeless encampment has grown inside and around the site of the demolished building, inviting drug use, violence and prostitution to the corner of the historic business corridor. 

According to organizers for the community group El Sereno Neighbors, emails from Jurado’s office show a willingness to advance the project despite fierce community opposition. Now, residents are calling for the Council District 14 representative to meet with the community and requesting impact records from the developer, who they say has been reluctant to produce them publicly. 

Am abandoned building at the corner of Huntington Drive and Portola Ave is the site of a proposed five-story, 111-unit development. Residents of the area say the development company is operating outside the rules and creating problems.

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In an emailed statement to The LA Local, a spokesperson for CD 14 said, “Councilmember Jurado believes affordable housing and community voice should not be treated as opposing values.” 

“Our priority is to make sure residents receive accurate information, the site is made safe, the rules are enforced, and the community’s concerns are represented at every point where the City has authority,” the statement said. It also pointed out that under Mayoral Executive Directive 1, the development does not need to go through the usual approval process. 

“Because this is a 100% affordable housing project, it qualifies for a by-right approval under the City’s Affordable Housing Incentive Program,” the statement said. “That means if a project meets the basic requirements, it can move forward without a public hearing, and neither City Planning nor the City Council has discretion to delay or deny it.”

The statement added that Jurado’s office has been working since April 2025 to hold the property owner accountable for fixing issues at the site.

SoLA Impact did not respond to The LA Local’s request for comment in time for publication.

Protesters along Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock say the issue of ED1 developments isn’t just limited to the Eastside and called for an end to the public safety crisis at the development on Huntington Drive in El Sereno.

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Records obtained by the group and reviewed by The LA Local show that the city of Los Angeles opened a code enforcement case against SoLA Impact in April 2025 after a complaint that the building at 5100 E. Huntington Dr. had been left open to the public. City inspectors subsequently cited the South Los Angeles-based developer for unpermitted demolition of the structure. As of late April 2026, the case remained under investigation, with a third order to comply issued just days ago.

But now, over a year since issues began, residents say they’re out of patience.

“The idea that a developer would come in, tear something down illegally without permits, not be held accountable for those permits and start a homeless encampment right across the street from a previous one is upsetting to people. It’s upsetting to the community,” organizer Claudette Contreras told The LA Local. 

Contreras also said the group chose to protest outside the Eagle Rock CD 14 office to show that the issue is city-wide, not just limited to El Sereno. 

Protesters outside Ysabel Jurado’s Eagle Rock office speak with CD 14 representative Troy Carbajal about their issues with a development in El Sereno on April 28, 2026.

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At one point, 10 protestors surrounded Troy Carbajal, a spokesperson for CD 14, outside the office and confronted him about what they see as a public safety crisis near the structure. 

“Our community does not need to see that. It’s been an eyesore for months and months, and our children deserve better,” a protestor told Carbajal, who fielded several questions and concerns from the community during the action.

Contreras said she’s also concerned that a five-story high-rise will be out of place in the largely single-family home neighborhood, and she said an additional hundred residents may increase tension over parking between neighbors. 

“Imagine 111 units, five stories, with 150, 200 additional cars in this area with no parking. It’s kind of outrageous. It also is on the business corridor, so it’s kind of devastating to the small businesses in this area who already have minimal parking on a very busy street,” Contreras said.

Am abandoned building at the corner of Huntington Drive and Portola Ave is the site of a proposed five-story, 111-unit development. Residents of the area say the development company is operating outside the rules and creating problems.

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Courtesy of Claudette Contreras

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El Sereno resident Daniela Bailes said she feels like SoLa Impact and the councilmember’s office should have consulted with neighborhood groups to determine the best uses for the property.

“They have tried to do this under the radar under ED1, to allow for this building to sprout up with zero community input,” Bailes said, referring to Mayor Karen Bass’ directive to accelerate the development of affordable housing around the city. 

Signed in 2022, ED1 was meant to address the housing crisis throughout the city by helping eliminate the red tape that affordable housing developments can get tangled in. In 2024, Bass rolled out an amended version of the directive, limiting where and how some developers build in L.A. 

Protesters outside Ysabel Jurado’s Eagle Rock office speak with CD 14 representative Troy Carbajal about their issues with a development in El Sereno on April 28, 2026.

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Another El Sereno resident, Ezequiel Olvera, considered the developer’s process problematic because it circumvents the legal process. He said the planning department needs to correct the violations on the property. 

“If you knock down a building, you need to bring it back to code. You can’t just go in there and demolish a building and say, ‘Let’s red tag this building so that we can get permits so we can start our process,’” Olvera said. “The city inspector should have them comply with the rules and regulations of the [Los Angeles Municipal Code].”

Olvera said Jurado has the authority to hold the developer accountable and a responsibility to listen to the needs of her constituents. El Sereno Neighbors has more than 1,100 signatures of affected residents demanding a public meeting with the councilmember.

“We’ve seen the pattern several times with different council members that put developers first and bring in the community at the last minute to get their input. By then, it’s already too late,” Olvera said, adding that residents are growing impatient with Jurado’s office. 

Contreras continued to urge increased communication and transparency from city leadership. 

“There should at least be a voice. There should at least be the normalcies that go with building a large development in an area,” Contreras said. “We’re not even asking for outrageous things. There should be parking and impact and safety reports, those are norms. And everyone is hiding behind ED1.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

For several months, Westlake residents have been waiting for more information about a proposed $2.3 million project to install a permanent fence around MacArthur Park. The locals want to have a voice in how the project moves forward.

“We want to ensure that this $2.3 million fence does not become yet another eyesore in our neighborhood,” residents said in a letter and sent in early March to city officials requesting more details on the project.

The letter, signed by Mireya Valencia, president of the MacArthur Park Neighborhood Council, on behalf of the council, adds that residents should help inform the design of the fence before any final plans are approved.

So far, Valencia said city officials have not meaningfully engaged with residents, pointing to a lack of routine check-ins. They were also promised conceptual renderings in January that would show what the fence would look like. Those have not materialized either.

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners, County Supervisor Hilda Solis and Mayor Karen Bass did not respond to requests for comment and were all addressed in the residents’ letter.

A spokesperson for Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s office said in a statement that Council District 1 has been a part of discussions around the proposed fence and attended a MacArthur Park Neighborhood Council meeting when the letter was drafted.

“We appreciate the MacArthur Park Neighborhood Council’s engagement on this issue and have communicated our support for an inclusive community engagement process,” Hernandez’s office said in the statement.

The office added that while the Department of Recreation and Parks is at the forefront of the effort, Hernandez’s office will “support efforts to ensure that community voices are meaningfully incorporated as the project moves forward.”

For several months, Westlake residents have been waiting for more information about a proposed $2.3 million project to install a permanent fence around MacArthur Park.

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Gary Coronado

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The neighborhood council wants to know how the $2.3 million project funds would be spent and an explanation on  the project’s timeline and delays. 

Valencia said some neighborhood council members gave public comment when the project was first considered by the Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners last October, but felt the decision had already been made.

“Basically, we were told the fence is happening,” Valencia said. 

The fence would allow the park to close the space overnight and make it easier to maintain and secure facilities, according to what city officials told the LA Local in February.

But some residents and park users, like Josefina Portillo, a local vendor who has sold snacks and drinks in MacArthur Park for more than thirty years, said they worry the fence would make the space even more inaccessible.

Valencia, who has lived in the area for five years, said the council has yet to receive a formal response to its March letter. She added that she understands why some residents support a fence, given the park’s ongoing safety concerns for families, but said a fence alone will not address the deeper issues affecting the park, including homelessness.

“A fence is just going to push the problem somewhere else,” she said. “So instead of money being spent on fencing, I would love to see money be spent on social services.”

Mikaela Ruiz, a Westlake community member who works in the area, believes the fence proposal was created by people who don’t understand all the meaningful interactions that take place at MacArthur Park.

“If you go to MacArthur Park on a regular Saturday, you still see families interacting with the park,” Ruiz said. “You still see the kids football games in the summer, you still see the Levitt Pavilion having shows and events.” 

Westlake residents want to have a voice in how the project moves forward.

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Gary Coronado / For The LA Local

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Ruiz said the city should focus on what she sees as a fentanyl crisis happening at the park and services for unhoused people. She added that she doesn’t believe a fence would make the area feel any safer.

“What we’ve taken from the fences that Karen Bass decided to put on Sixth Street is that they just accumulate the trash,” Ruiz said. 

Valencia said meaningful community engagement would mean city officials change how and when they reach out to local residents.

“I would like to see proactive community engagement instead of reactive community engagement,” Valencia said. “Again, they come to our meetings after the decision has been made and after we write these letters, but they’re not asking us what we think beforehand.” 

If the fence does move forward, Valencia said she hopes it reflects the community and does not make the park feel closed off, pointing to the fence that the Frida Kahlo theater nearby has, as being more welcoming.

“I would love to see it incorporate artwork and our culture somehow,” Valencia said. “I would hate to see it blemished by an ugly carceral fence.”

The House of Representatives voted Thursday to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security, ending the longest agency shutdown in U.S. history.

The House passed a bill funding DHS, minus dollars for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The measure passed by voice vote on what was the 76th day of the shutdown.

Democrats refused to back funding for many of the agency's immigration functions in an unsuccessful effort to secure reforms including body-worn cameras and broad restrictions on face coverings after federal law enforcement killed two American citizens in Minnesota earlier this year.

The Senate, led by Republican Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., unanimously advanced this funding legislation in March. At the time, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., referred to the proposal as "a joke" and refused to bring it up for a vote. Many members of the House Republican conference refused to fund the agency in a piecemeal fashion and did not want to negotiate over reforms to immigration enforcement operations.

On April 1, Johnson reversed course. He announced the funding bill would be voted on "in the coming days." More than four weeks later, he finally made good on that commitment.

In an effort to appease his hardline members, Johnson waited to bring the Senate's proposal to a vote until that chamber's Republicans started the arcane procedural process, known as reconciliation, to fund all of DHS — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — for the remainder of Trump's term without any backing from Democrats.

The funding bill comes as Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin warned the agency was close to running out of funds to pay staff.

"We have reached all the emergency funds we can reach into," Mullin told Fox News on Friday. "I am completely out of the slush fund, I have no place to move at the end of the month."

Mullin said the agency was relying on appropriated funds from last year's One Big Beautiful Bill, which allocated more than $150 billion to DHS on top of its regular annual appropriations funding.

President Donald Trump signed a memo this month authorizing DHS to use some of the money from that legislation to fund the department's operations — potentially infringing on the powers granted to Congress by the Constitution to direct how taxpayer money is spent.
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