Demonstrators ask city not to cite them for distributing food on Skid Row

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If you want to go down to Skid Row to hand out food to the homeless, you might get in trouble with the law. "My organization has been cited and a lot of organizations that we work with like the Hippy Kitchen and Food not Bombs, they've been cited, they've been arrested," says Eric Ares from activist group LA CAN, one of the organizations that went to City Hall Thursday to protest strict regulations on food distribution on Skid Row. Activists say that they are being unnecessarily cited for doing work that benefits the city's homeless population. But the city, and the missions on Skid Row say that regulations on food distribution are in place for health and safety reasons. Andy Bales is the CEO of the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row, one of the organizations that makes up the LA Downtown Clergy Council. "Our kitchens are supervised by the health department and everybody so they can make sure the food is safe and those things are missing when someone just puts something together in their kitchen and drops it off," Bales says. He adds that there's another issue with unauthorized food distribution, "We also serve in a way that doesn't add to the trash on Skid Row and that's one of the problems with outside feeding is a lot of the leftover plates and things end up on the street and add to the mess that is Skid Row." But demonstrators like Ares say that safety liabilities and trash issues are beside the point. "What we're trying to say is that honestly, that is not an issue. The real issue is that people don't have access to fresh, nutritious food and we're trying to do that work," Ares says. Bales and the LA Downtown Clergy Council say there is enough access to food Downtown. Most estimates put Skid Row's homeless population at about 4 or 5 thousand and the four main missions Downtown serve about 8,000 meals a day. And Bales emphasizes that it's not just food that they give out. "I think the most important thing is that we're connected in a relationship with the people that we feed and we can help direct them to other resources to help end their homelessness," Bales says. Thursday's rally goers hoped just to raise awareness about food access for LA's homeless and to ask the city not to cite them for trying to do good work. The LA Downtown Clergy Council does not believe people handing out food should be punished for trying to help. But, they say, the most effective way to help is to volunteer with one of the many organizations that are already doing safe, legal work within the Skid Row community. Story Tags: skid row, homelessness, city hall, protest