Mile of cars lines up for LA food giveaway

A pop-up grocery giveaway in Los Angeles Thursday (April 9) drew a line of cars that stretched for a mile, a haunting sign of how social distancing has hit the working poor in the U>S.

Hundreds more lined up for free groceries on foot, many wearing trash bags to shelter from the rain, queueing up for a block in Van Nuys.

Michael Flood is the president of the LA Regional Food Bank.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) LOS ANGELES REGIONAL FOOD BANK CEO, MICHAEL FLOOD, SAYING:

"This is one of our drive-thru where we have families, many of whom have been impacted by layoffs or furloughs or had their hours cut back . They are coming through and getting shelf-stable food, frozen meat, in this instance, chicken, and also fresh fruit, oranges."

More than 90 percent of Americans are under some kind of stay-at-home order, depriving millions of a paycheck.

The northeast part of LA is home to many working poor Latino families, and is especially hard hit.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) LOS ANGELES REGIONAL FOOD BANK CEO, MICHAEL FLOOD, SAYING:

"We are doing one or two a day depending on the day, and we are moving them around Los Angeles county which is the area we cover . Part of the reason for doing these distributions is to try to take some pressure off our agency network, food pantries and other organizations that are also seeing a big spike in demand for food assistance, so this has become regular."

Organizers of Thursday's giveaway said they had enoguh to hand out to more than 2,500 families.

It was open to anyone in need.