LOS ANGELES — With the school year underway in Los Angeles, the L.A. Dream Center has announced that on Tuesday, Aug. 18, they will resume their drive-thru food service to assist families who normally had school lunches to count on for their families. They first introduced this unique gift to the community back in March when the pandemic began.

In addition to the meals provided on the Dream Center campus, the Dream Center is now pleased to announce the first-ever “Restart Learning Center,” mobile learning hubs strategically placed throughout Los Angeles to provide a place of safety, accountability and motivation with tutors on board. This is an entirely new form of assistance the Dream Center has embarked on, knowing that education will be particularly challenging for many families without resources and good structure to help their children as they attend school remotely.

“It’s no secret that the pandemic and the lock down in Los Angeles are crippling the poorest and most vulnerable among us,” L.A. Dream Center co-founder Matthew Barnett has repeatedly reminded his staff and volunteers.

“When this crisis began, I saw families in tears from overwhelming uncertainty and kids robbed of a normal childhood or adolescence. I saw the rug pulled from under so many in our community. But when life lands a punch, we counterpunch with a force of good. Families throughout Los Angeles need us right now, and providing meals and resources to ensure kids don’t fall behind scholastically are just two of the ways we’re responding to this crisis with every ounce of energy that we have. Right now, all of us at the Dream Center are united in enthusiasm for our latest mantra: ‘Meet the need. Support the comeback.’”

The Dream Center is reopening its drive-thru and food line on Aug. 18, operating throughout the fall semester and possibly into the new year. It will be open from Monday to Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Barnett and a number of staff at the Dream Center personally know numerous families who rely on school lunches every day. In fact, 85% of children in California benefit from school lunch programs so much so that during the summer, 17 out of 20 low-income students fall into the nutrition gap when it becomes unavailable, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

About the Los Angeles Dream Center

The Los Angeles Dream Center is a faith-based non-profit organization located in Echo Park, dedicated to transforming lives and underserved communities in the city of Los Angeles. By offering residential and outreach programs to individuals, families and communities in the areas of homelessness, hunger, poverty, addiction, domestic violence, education, and human trafficking, the Dream Center is committed to enabling immediate and long-term transformation. The Dream Center welcomes those in need into our community completely free-of-charge with the resources, training, and support they need, regardless of faith, age, gender, orientation, nationality, or any other defining factor.

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