An LA Food Bank Is Giving Out Groceries To Writers And Actors On Strike

Members of SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents thousands of Hollywood television and movie actors, voted to strike on Thursday, July 13. The move came after months of demonstrations demanding better pay and other protections alongside screenwriters affiliated with the Writer's Guild of America (WGA). It's the biggest Hollywood strike in more than 40 years, and it's not slowing down. 

"I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us," SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said Thursday at a Los Angeles press conference. The actor accused major studios of "[pleading] poverty" while "giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their C.E.O.s." Kimiko Glenn, who voiced her anger on TikTok, said that she and her fellow "Orange Is The New Black" stars had to take on second jobs while filming.  

Meanwhile, the World Harvest Food Bank in Arlington Heights is stepping in to provide food to actors and screenwriters struggling to make ends meet during the Hollywood shutdown. The Los Angeles Times reports that any SAG-AFTRA or WGA member with a World Harvest Food Bank membership card can stock up on as much food as they can fit in their carts.  

World Harvest owner Glen Curado told the Los Angeles Times that his food bank's grocery relief program for actors and writers, devised with the help of SAG-AFTRA member Kristina Wong, went into effect one day after SAG-AFTRA's strike officially began. 

Instead of asking for a $55 donation or volunteer time in exchange for a bounty of produce, bread, and meat, the food bank — which provides free bags of groceries to families in need, according to its website — is allowing those on strike to grab whatever they want from the shelves at no charge. In response to critics who say Hollywood actors and writers are less in need than other Angelinos, Wong told the Times, "Who is to say that actors are not also single parents, are also people being evicted, are also people living out of their cars?"

Supplies at World Harvest, of course, are limited. To keep people fed for as long as possible, Curado is asking those who are willing and able to consider making a donation to the food bank.