This August, St. Francis Center started a new partnership with Lyft by launching the Grocery Access Pilot Program (GAP) together!
The GAP in Los Angeles, part of Lyft City Works, is an initiative to assist Los Angeles residents living in food deserts with fresh, healthy grocery options. The program will provide local families and low-income individuals living in areas surrounding Downtown and South LA, including all of St. Francis Center’s pantry service participants on site and at all of our five satellite pantries with a $2.00 flat-rate fare on one round trip per week. All throughout the month of August, we started registering our families in GAP!
100% of our families and individuals fall well below the federal poverty level, making an average of about $11,000 for a family of four. Few of our families are able to afford a car and must rely on public transportation to get to and from the grocery store or our pantry services. Most guests need to take several buses. Not only do the fares add up, but carrying groceries at each stop is a challenge that often limits how much they can bring home.
We’d like to give a huge thank you to Lyft for helping make fresh produce and groceries much more accessible to our community in need!
