Thousands of food insecure residents in Southern California receive help at Panorama City distribution event

PANORAMA CITY, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- It's an unfortunate sign of the times: a food distribution event in Panorama City drew a massive crowd on Thursday, and there is no indication that the need is going to diminish any time soon.

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has partnered with civic and government groups to distribute tons of food for the food insecure.

"Everything's really bad right now. We're just trying to survive right now," said Thomas Ascencio from Pacoima. "There's a lot of people out of work right now. My wife's out of work because of the pandemic that's going on right now."

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The L.A. Regional Food Bank says it is expecting even more people will be needing this help.

"When the pandemic hit, we were, our distribution, there was an increase of over 80% compared to last year. When businesses reopened, it went down to 70%. Now we're back at over 80% again so we're expecting the demand to continue," said Hilda Ayala from the L.A. Regional Food Bank.

'You know these are people who are barely getting by; who are living paycheck to paycheck before the pandemic. So now they're falling further and further behind. It's the working poor that we should be worried about," said L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez.

The L.A. Regional Food Bank isn't anticipating a shortage of food to give away. What they are anticipating in the months to come is an increase in need.

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