Timeline

In response to UPAS and AHA organizing, the County Board of Supervisors allocated over $30MM to grocery vouchers to support families facing food insecurity during the pandemic and $5MM to a Healthy Food Kickstarter program to increase the quality of markets in low-income communities.

UPAS, in partnership with Green Dot Public Schools and St. John’s Well Child Clinic, fully vaccinated more than 7,400 eligible people against COVID-19. In efforts to provide vaccine equity, UPAS targeted communities that were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

UPAS parents and students advocated for the LA County Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles City Council to support an ordinance granting essential grocery store workers an additional $5 per hour for 120 days for their work during the pandemic. Both ordinances were approved!

On November 17, 2020, over 1000 parents, students and community members gathered virtually for the 7th annual UPAS Assembly. Leaders were joined by Mayor Eric Garcetti, Senator Ana Caballero, Councilmember Curren Price and others who made commitments around food justice, housing, affordable housing, and addressing the digital divide. WATCH NOW.

​UPAS team members take to the virtual classroom to register students in time for the 2020 Presidential election. UPAS was successful in registering over 400 new students to vote!

12 new student leaders – including our first from Washington state – gathered virtually for the 4th annual Young Organizer’s Institute! Students participated in virtual workshops and a seminar series hosted by Street Poets to learn the tools of Community Organizing and develop their Stories of Self.

​UPAS was awarded the Los Angeles Leadership “You’re the Cure” Award from the American Heart Association for advocacy against the sale of flavored tobacco products in Los Angeles County.

​In response to tremendous job loss due to the pandemic, UPAS CA teamed up with One Family LA to distribute $140,000 in Target gift cards and UPAS TN secured a grant from the Urban Child Institute to distribute $3,000 in Kroger gift cards to assist families with groceries.

​In response to family organizing, Public Works closed a tunnel in the Florence-Firestone community next to Animo Pat Brown which had put many students in danger on their way to and from school.

Families supported the LA Food Policy and Good Food Zones Working Group to organize for the passage of the Good Food Zones Motion by City Council which will provide incentives to small businesses working to expand access to healthy, affordable food, beginning with a pilot in South LA.