The LA Fires: Resources & Remembering

Summer 2012. My days were aimless. I had just graduated from USC’s film school with a master’s degree and no job. So, I ventured to the Pacific Palisades for the first time to visit the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine1 to walk and journal.

I returned to the area several times over the years: for a bizarre job interview with a woman who wanted someone to manage social media and editorial from her house’s basement (??) (I did not take that job); for my first Couch Potato Cook blog interview with a small food business owner; and for Sweet Laurel Bakery, where I got my birthday cake during COVID.

I share those snippets of memories because those small moments bubble up during sudden losses like this. One minute something is there and then it’s gone, but it’s still alive in your memory, so how could it really be gone? But alas, it is.

I’m safe and I wasn’t near the fires, but so many other people were.

My heart is with those who have lost their homes and their livelihoods, and even those who have found their structures are still standing, but uninhabitable.

It’s been hard to write about the fires, personally. I mean, professionally I did write about the fires and I am safe and didn’t have to evacuate, but it’s been hard to gather my thoughts personally. I’ve lived in LA for 15 years and like many people before me have already said, it’s never been this bad. The amount of loss is immeasurable. It breaks my heart.

I’m not getting into the blame game. This is a food newsletter. What I will get into is providing some resources below.

• Highly recommend the Watch Duty app for information and evacuation alerts

• Spreadsheets:

  • LA Fire Mutual Aid Resources Hub

  • Small Business Shelters

  • GoFundMes for Latino families

  • In-Person Volunteer opportunities

  • LA Resource Aid tracker

  • Brands Providing Products to Families Impacted by LA Fires

  • Displaced Black Families GoFundMe Directory

  • Lost/Found - LA Animals

• From GoFundMe: Wildfire Relief Fund

• From 5 PM LUCKY: Direct Fundraising for Los Angeles Area Fire Victims (Eaton & Palisades)

• From Morning, Trojan: USC community reeling from LA wildfires + GoFundMe pages to support affected students, faculty, and staff

Food-specific

• World Central Kitchen
• LA Wildfire Community Meal Campaign
• Restaurants Care
• Regarding Her

Eater reported this week that a lot of local LA eateries are struggling right now because customers aren’t coming in like they usually are (understandably) and revenues are dropping.

And on that note, Dine LA starts this week and “LA Tourism will donate $5 per reservation made to The American Red Cross with a match from Banc of California, raising the total donation up to $100,000.”

If you are able, please support your local restaurants.

Next up…

Yes, there will be more podcast episodes and posts — I have two that I put a semester’s worth of research into and will write up soon. As you can tell from my use of the words “semester” and “research,” I’m a part-time professor and this Spring, I’m teaching more than ever, but I like having this space as a creative outlet when I have free time.

All that to say, there’s more to come.