ABOUT US
OC Hunger Alliance unites cross-sector leaders to transform Orange County’s food system through equitable, sustainable solutions addressing hunger and poverty.
Founded in 2019 by leadership from Abound Food Care, Community Action Partnership of Orange County (CAPOC), and Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, the OC Hunger Alliance (OCHA) brings together the county’s two major food banks along with key cross-sector stakeholders from healthcare, social services, and the food systems. This collective model collaborative is dedicated to driving systems-level change and addressing both the immediate needs of food-insecure individuals and families as well as the underlying causes of hunger in Orange County.
With eight Steering Committee member organizations and nine additional partners incorporated into OCHA’s working groups, OCHA now includes 17 nonprofit, philanthropic, public, and faith-based organizations. We’re designing and implementing systems that will recover, repurpose, and redistribute surplus food efficiently and equitably; removing barriers to accessing public benefits; and using food recovery to create opportunities for low-income and underserved communities through access to critical resources like health care and workforce development programs at the point of distribution.
Areas of Focus
Food insecurity goes beyond hunger. To create long-term impact, OCHA is bringing together hunger-relief organizations to work collaboratively and ensure people don’t ever reach that moment of need. Our working groups help deepen cross-sector coordination, foster innovation, and advance progress across six collective impact initiatives:
- Client Choice
- CalFresh Participation
- Enhanced Procurement
- Enhanced Services
- Coordinated Logistics
- Food Recovery
Our model is optimizing food industry infrastructure and integrating it with nonprofit networks to meet the urgent needs of our communities. As we reduce food waste and loss, we’re also streamlining the rescue of nutritious food and using data to identify key intervention points to support those impacted by food insecurity. We strive to understand hunger as a symptom of poverty and provide support before there is an emergent need.
We provide scalable solutions that will generate long-term, measurable outcomes: healthier communities, reduced methane emissions, and economic resilience.
