CULVER CITY, Calif. – Venice Family Clinic, the nonprofit fitness center that distributed loose food during the coronavirus pandemic, is expanding its food distribution operations at its Culver City site starting Thursday.

The clinic has been offering “healthy, loose foods” to approximately 200 pregnant, pediatric and diabetic patients for several months at Colen Health Centers, 4700 Inglewood Blvd., 102. This number is more than 1500 people, with distributions from 11 am to 1 pm the time and the fourth Thursday of the month.

“Food is a medicine, and that’s why the Venice Family Clinic is committed to providing healthy food to our patients and, with the COVID-19 epidemic, to the entire community,” said Rigoberto A. García II, the clinic’s director of fitness. . Education.

“The pandemic has particularly increased the need for food for others who have lost their jobs or noticed a drop in income because they paint fewer hours,” he said. “We hope that desires will increase as this fitness crisis continues, and we are pleased to be there to help our patients and the community.

The Venice Family Clinic already serves another 1,500 people a week at its Simms/ Mann Health and Wellness Center at 2509 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica, where food is distributed from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays.

The clinic began distributing food to patients at its Santa Monica site in November. When the COVID-19 outbreak occurred in March, the number of other people looking for food began to increase, so Santa Monica distributions lasted every two weeks each and every week in May.

The food comes from Food Forward, which saves more than 500,000 pounds of surplus products a week from fruit trees, farmers markets and wholesale markets in Los Angeles and donates them to the Venice Family Clinic and other hunger agencies.

“We thank Food Forward and our donors and sponsors benefited from allowing us to provide healthy food to our patients and our community,” Garcia said. “Thanks to its support, Venice Family Clinic has distributed nearly 170,000 pounds of food since the start of the pandemic.

Anthem Blue Cross Medi-Cal provided investment and healthy food for patients at the clinic. Other sponsors come with the Albertsons Foundation, Kroger Foundation Co. – Ralphs, Health Net, Audrey and Sidney Irmas Foundation for Social Justice and Simms/Mann Family Foundation.

Venice Family Clinic, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, serves approximately 28,000 men, women and youth a year through sites in Venice, Santa Monica, Mar Vista, Inglewood and Culver City.

People are asking at a new point after primary adjustments and adjustments due to the coronavirus pandemic, Patch in July was told fitness experts from the Venice Family Clinic.

No matter who you are, there’s assistance at the Venice Family Clinic, said Mimi Lind, director of behavioral fitness at the Venice Family Clinic, a nonprofit fitness center.

“Venice is such a special network – it’s a wonderful combination of cultures, other people from all walks of life and activism,” Lind told Patch. “The Venice Family Clinic is proud to have supported the physical and intellectual fitness of its citizens for more than 50 years. We serve about 28,000 men, women and children, regardless of their ability to pay or their immigration status.

Most other people feel a replacement and primary challenges, Lind said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of almost everyone in Venice, greatly increasing emotional stress,” Lind told Patch. Many others have lost their homework or noticed a large decrease in their source of income due to licensing and other task cuts. Many others who have continued to paint are in health care and other essential tasks that are more likely to be at risk. creating a great anxiety for them and their families. “

– The city news service and patch editor Nicole Charky contributed to this report.

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This article was originally published in the Culver City Patch