Attendees take donated food from the Single Mom Project’s new Nutritional Pantry in Hawthorne on Saturday, May 20, 2023.
Janet Jones, a Manhattan Beach resident, felt uneasy when she learned struggling parents had to use their “extra” money on food, instead of whatever they wanted.
So she decided to do something about it.
That was two years ago. Since then, her initiative, the Single Mom Project, has given single mothers around the South Bay monetary boosts, and has now helped convert a room at a local trauma-focused counseling facility into something that will feed people for years to come.
Leadership Manhattan Beach’s 2023 class partnered with the Single Mom Project to open a nutrition pantry at the Richstone Family Center in Hawthorne. A ribbon cutting on Saturday, May 20, celebrated the unveiling, as well as distribution of $1,000 checks to more than two dozen single mothers.
It’s the first time that Leadership Manhattan Beach, a city program where classes of participants annually create projects that benefit and leave their legacy on the community, has done work outside of its home city.
“I knew our moms were hungry because when I asked the first year, ‘What do you think you’re going to spend your money on?’ more than half of (the recipients) said, ‘I want to spend it on food; I have not eaten so my kids can eat,’” Jones said. “That was startling, and such an important thing for us to learn.”
The food pantry, though, isn’t just for single parents.
Single Mom Project recipients will, of course, access the new space, said Richstone Development Director Allison Tanaka, but “the pantry is to serve any of our clients who are in need.
“For our families grappling with (things like) trauma, domestic violence, child abuse, for them to receive services to make them emotionally and mentally healthy is one thing,” Tanaka said. “But it’s really hard to make progress in that specific area if you’re constantly worried about making ends meet for food and housing.”
Richstone has been doing weekly food distributions for years now, Tanaka said, which became much more needed during the pandemic.
“Now, too, with the cost of groceries rising so quickly, we have more families asking for food assistance than we’ve ever had,” she said. “So when Janet and Leadership Manhattan Beach were considering a potential project collaboration, we thought this would be timely — and we needed room for expansion.”
Funding for the pantry came from community donors, including some corporate ones, such as Kinecta Federal Credit Union, said project manager Sheila Miller Nelson.
With the new pantry, which Jones said cost about $10,000, Richstone will serve 50 families three days per week, doubling the amount of people to whom the center could previous offer food.
“I believe the nutrition pantry will alleviate so much stress and strain,” Jones said, “because they know where food is coming from each week.”
Jones initially began fundraising to give single mothers $500 gifts during Christmas and Mothers Day. Now, she’s giving each mother $1,000 once per year, and is still collecting donations in her local community in a grassroots way.
Richstone staff and family members nominate the mothers who receive the money.
“Our first year, we gave away 11 grants,” Jones said. “This year, we have nearly tripled the number of moms who will be honored.”
A single mother herself, Jones started the Single Mom Project in 2020 after getting a $5,000 check from a friend, money that she said helped her get by in unimaginable ways.
Saturday, Jones said, was an “incredibly meaningful day for the moms to see the nutrition pantry come to life and get their grants.”
Other organizations, too, are noticing this work and helping in the effort.
L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s office gave science camp scholarships for five Richstone children, Jones said.
Like with the Single Mom Project, people are nominated by their therapists weekly to access the pantry, Tanaka said. Nominations stay open, she added, as they’re always talking on new folks when they can.
The center’s typical pantry space didn’t have storage for perishable food, Tanaka said; when the produce comes in on a Thursday, it was distributed that same morning.
But now the center has a refrigerator.
“Now we have a place to keep an extra amount of food to stretch it further,” Tanaka said.
Last week, for example, the center got a bunch of extra eggs that could be saved to for the following week’s giveaway, Tanaka said.
The Single Mom Project itself has already made an impact on Richstone families.
The project “makes them feel special and gives them that self esteem boost to continue working on themselves,” Tanaka said.
One Richstone therapist said that one of their clients, a Single Mom Project recipient, not only found the money helpful, but also felt their work as a single parent was validated by the recognition, Tanaka said.
Another mom, she added, had used her funds to repair her car, which allowed her to take a job offer that she otherwise would have had to decline.
And another’s self esteem was heightened enough to make personal changes and accelerate her progress in therapy.
“It’s not only the tangible things,” Tanaka said, “but the things you don’t see: the emotions and confidence building that really helps to help them make progress on their individual goals.”
Now that Leadership Manhattan Beach has been wrapped into the fold of supporting the pantry, Tanaka said, the single moms feel even more seen.
Jones, meanwhile, said she’s focusing on ensuring folks at the center consistently have everything they need before expanding her project to other places.
“I hope I live to be 100,” she said, “so I can see other organizations get the advantages the Single Mom Project can bring.”