Central Los Angeles : Freezers Break at Pantry for AIDS Patients

The freezers at a food pantry for low-income people with AIDS broke down over the holiday weekend, destroying at least $2,000 worth of food and leaving the pantry without a means of storing perishable goods.

“We had some big, second-hand industrial freezers,” said the Rev. Andrew Robinson-Gaither, director of Imani Unidos. “We had been spending a lot of money repairing them.”

When the pastor returned to the pantry after being away for the long weekend he said he noticed a suspicious odor. “I smelled something and I thought, ‘Oh, my God,” he said.

Although the pantry receives some funding from the county, Robinson-Gaither said there is not enough money to cover emergencies like this one.

The pastor is asking the public to donate nonperishable foods, money or new freezers.

“We can receive nonperishable foods such as canned peas, corn and beef stew or rice, macaroni and cheese, and juices,” he said, “but the biggest part is our freezers, in which we keep eggs and milk, chicken and ground turkey and bacon. . . . It would be wonderful if we had some new industrial freezers.”

Imani Unidos operates out of the Faith United Methodist Church in South Los Angeles, providing groceries for more than 125 families, according to Robinson-Gaither. All clients must show symptoms of AIDS, he said, and have an income of less than $600 a month.

“Imani” is Swahili for “faith” and “unidos” is Spanish for “united,” an attempt to reflect the clientele of the pantry, who are mostly African American and Latino. For information, call: (213) 754-8453. . . .