Under the dazzling lights of Tinsel Town, Replate and the Hollywood Food Coalition, are also making magic happen. 

In Los Angeles, where around two million people experience food insecurity (and everyone deals with haze!), Replate aims to make an imprint in the fight against hunger and climate change. In 2021, we partnered with the Hollywood Food Coalition (HFC) to expand our food recovery services, combining forces to amplify our collective impact.

So far, the collaboration has led to blockbuster success!

Replate support HFC’s community dinner and community exchange programs, both of which serve hundreds of individuals each week. The dinner program provides a healthy meal every night of the year to a dining room full of guests, while the community exchange program offers food rescue and distribution services. 

“The Exchange is a concierge service for nonprofit organizations to get access to the food they want, when they need it,” explains Bryan Pauquette, Community Exchange Director. “We bring rescued food from a variety of donors and food rescue organizations back to our warehouse, where it’s aggregated and inventoried, so that it can be distributed.”

HFC tailors those deliveries to the needs and capacity of the 125 organizations it serves across L.A. and beyond. As part of our partnership, Replate contributes pre-made meals from donors like Kaiser Permanente, which are spread across both programs. 

“We serve around 180 to 300 meals every night as part of our dinner program, and Replate provides a second meal for guests to take home with them,” says Erin Lovelace, Kitchen Supervisor. “This is really important because a lot of our guests only eat one meal a day, so it gives them the opportunity to have a meal the next morning.”

Through our collaboration, HFC’s guests are able to have a wide variety of food to select from, including vegan, kosher, and halal options, and meals that only require a microwave to heat up and enjoy. 

For those in unstable living circumstances, it can be a big lift.

“We recently did a huge collaboration with Replate and Omni Foods,” Pauquette recalls. “There were dozens of palates of this amazing vegan pork, and we were able to divert that to many organizations, including our own, where it became one of the most popular vegan meats we’ve ever served. It added another variety we could offer our guests.”

For Pauquette and his team, consistency and reliability is key, which is why Replate strives to connect and build alliances with organizations like HFC. 

He adds, “As we get bigger, we simply can’t reach all these donors. Replate is crucial to the system as a whole because they’re accessing food we cannot, improving our variety and quality, and allowing us to serve more people. We can reduce the barriers of entry for other organizations, leading to a better system overall.”

We love witnessing such great scenes in action…Take 10! 

To learn more about Hollywood Food Coalition, visit their website.

And find everything to know about Replate here!