World Harvest Food Bank

I had a slight disappointing first time experience. After my review on Facebook I was notified that my next visit would be much better.
Today I decided to show up, it being Saturday instead of in the middle of the week like last time, I thought today would be a better day. Well it was, they sure did make up for my disappointment the last time I was there, though I’m not complaining it’s just that I hate having to throw away food.
The people that work there including volunteers are amazing!!! I don’t want to go into detail what was done for me today but I will say that my expectations were surpassed today, I’m still in shock!!!

I’m not sure what goes on here but when I got there they were throwing food out in a trash can. The tomatoes looked good still? And when I went in they wanted 30 dollars for food. Don’t have money but seems odd they rather throw away food instead of charging less or giving it to people who don’t have money for the donation? IDK maybe I was seeing something wrong. The idea is nice anyways

Great place to shop for big families it even for small ones but it’s so worth it And really great quality I don’t see how people gave this place bad reviews people there were very nice and welcoming, next week I’m volunteering with wife so that we can get one basket and donate the other one God bless this people and enjoy

Always a real treat to go to World Harvest Food Bank​…literally AND figuratively, :-). You never know what exotic treasures of culinary adventure you will find… and the great prices allow me to try new things I may not otherwise try if they were more expensive. Glen is a real sweetheart and treats all his customers like family. I highly recommend this experience to anyone! I used to go and get the giant basket of food for $ 30 but now that I have less people to feed I go and just buy what I need. I am able to share with my friends and neighbors, or my church which feels great too. There is often organic food which is wonderful to find since it is often out of my price range otherwise. A lot of the items can be frozen. Go try it out. As Metra says, some days are better, so give it a chance. I’ve been shopping there for over 3 years and it is a delight. I can afford to go to a regular market, but who doesn’t like a good deal?

I had the honor to visit World Harvest food bank and meet Glen and some of the workers/​volunteers today. I had a very pleasant experience! The amount of food I received was way too much and I’m sharing with a few neighbors and relatives. For $ 30 I got two shopping carts full of produce! This was my first time there and I know food varies by the day because it is stuff that is donated from grocery stores. Most of the food is about to expire, but everything still looked great and edible! You get some food that the worker puts in your cart and then you move on to the produce section and you pick as much or as little as you want of whatever is there. I was able to get broccoli, apples, onions, potatoes, chives, spinach, green beans, basil, oregano, avocados, pineapple and different types of squash. Today, they also had toys to give away and went home with a few. A nice man helped me out to my car and loaded all the stuff for me. I tried giving him a tip, but he declined.
Being that this organization was set up to help, I don’t understand the large amount of negative comments. When you first go, you fill out a basic form, name/​address/​phone number. You do not have to give them your number if you don’t want to. Over all, this place is great and a great service to Angelenos. Thank you Glen for your generosity!!!

Ive had opportunity to volunteer at numerous non-​profits that help the less fortunate in our community, but World Harvest has become my personal favorite Charity because they don’t just give to their customers, they give GENEROUSLY!
When you shop at This food bank, you will be greeted by friendly staff or quite possibly the owner himself will give you a tour around the place & he is the nicest man you will ever hope to meet! For your $ 30 donation, You’ll be given a large box full of canned goods, cereal, snacks, drinks, baby/​kids items & numerous misc. items. Then you can bag as much organic produce as you’d like to take home. I went today & they had beautiful lemons, portabello mushrooms, squash, celery, bananas, raspberries, watermelon, apples, peppers, broccoli, potatoes and many others. Then you can help yourself to up to 8 different bread/​bakery items of your choice. Then if you choose, you can take home several boxes of produce they’ve received in surplus. Today it was green onions & avocados! And finally, as though that weren’t enough; because it’s Christmas, I was able to select a brand new toy for each of my kids to put under the tree! These toys alone would have cost me at least $ 60 at Target or Walmart! I am so thankful for this place!!!
There is also another section of the store that has a variety of healthy & beauty, household, baby/​kid items & clothes & shoes & these items are prices individually, prices seem to be between $.50-​$ 5.00. Today I got Neutrogena Shampoo & Conditioner, Children’s Tylenol for my baby & Dishwasher gel packs for $ 1-​$ 2 each!
I am honestly very disappointed reading the Unilocal reviews on WH because it’s so often the naysayers who take the time to post their negative rants, but the thousands of families I’ve heard are frequent satisfied customers here, have not taken the time to post their feedback. Which I would say, is sadly typical. To the naysayers who’ve complained about the quality of the food, I would encourage you to keep in mind the reason you are not being charged «Whole Foods» prices for your organic produce at World Harvest is because some of it (but definitely not all) is not perfect, which is why it was donated by Whole Foods. So as in today, I may have a box of avocados & several of them are brown & won’t make it into my guacamole, but the other ¾ box is perfectly fine & I just got 30 avocados and a shopping cart full of other items, for less money than those avocados alone would have cost me at The grocery store! So it’s a trade off, incredible value & tons of food but you may get a few bad veggies in the batch. If you’re going to act like a snob & write this invaluable resource off for that, then you probably don’t get it & don’t belong here.
So that’s my RANT. ;)
I have been a customer at this place for several years now & don’t know what I would do without this resource! I feed my family & use the additional food I’m given to help other families that I know will be helped by it & that’s how the spirit of generousity has a ripple effect! I tell everyone I know about this resource, so I guess it’s about time I wrote my Unilocal review!

Enormous amounts of produce and breads that are approaching expiration but if you’re feeding a lot of people quickly then this won’t be a problem. I got the most delicious raspberries I’d had in a long time from there recently. Some days are better than others but if you make this a regular stop it should pan out for you overall. Call ahead, they recently changed locations. The owner is a good, decent man.

Thank you for removing my phone # from the auto calls.

I love this place! You can pick and choose your foods. Sometimes the employees will add more to your cart (very generous of them). But if you dont want some stuff you can always kindly tell them that you dont need it. This place is great to get your produce or if your planning to cook for a huge family (the food is due to expire sooner than later) i recommend it for anyone looking to buy food. Or just visit the place they have a seperate area for neccessities like shampoo and conditioner. Its awesome!

Excelente lugar !!! una gran ayuda para estos tiempos de crisis, todo su personal es muy agradable y atento con todas las personas q llegan a surtir su despensa, por cierto gran variedad en sus productos.

Great place to receive over 100 pounds of groceries with a $ 30 donation or 4 hours of volunteering! Everyone is so helpful and friendly. Although they don’t always have meat, they always have meat based items! As well as dairy products, household necessities, grains, fresh fruits, veggies and bread! They even give you a free gift when you return their shopping cart!

i absolutely love World Harvest!
My family and I were going through difficult times and after hearing about World Harvest from a neighbor, we made our way there to check it out. To my amazement, the prices are so ridiculously affordable! (especially for a family of three just starting off) and the owner, Glenn is not only courteous and helpful but understanding as well and helped to introduce us to his store. (the staff are also friendly and helpful)
Please come check them out, you won’t regret it! (:

The store In los angeles you will find trash for $ 30.00
If you want to help peoples make sure do it right. or you better do nothing .
the pictures on the propaganda flyers are nice, but the item at the store are ugly.

Okay… so. I am a mom in Santa Monica and I have a budget in which I am loyal! The place is great and I am all about the bang for a buck! You will get it here! Fresh, quality,

Free food for members. Great tacos out front.

I just managed to block the robocalls from the world harvest food bank. Google ‘[your phone provider] call block’ and you’ll find links explaining how to block specific numbers after logging into your ‘my [phone provider]’ site.
World Harvest Food Bank gets minus 5 stars, unlike, and call block.

World Harvest Food Bank is a charity and if you are not in need of charity or in need of giving it, there is no reason to go there. This is an organization which purports to be a better value than supermarket shopping for people who are on a budget or, for lack of a better word, «needy.» I say you must really be in desperate need to find value in the food items offered here, but if you are not in need, then consider that they may need you.
They say they provide a number of basic necessities in their set package of goods which varies from day to day depending on what items are received as donations for a low cost of $ 25 and your personal contact information. If you haven’t got the cash, they will also give you the goods in exchange for 4 hours of volunteer work that day and your personal contact information.
They will use your information they gather to send helpful «reminder» recorded announcements delivered via robocall anywhere from two to three times a week highlighting the current available items. To say that is very difficult to make the automated calls stop would be hyperbolic understatement. (Despite numerous attempts to ‘opt out’ of this convenience, I’ve been fielding phone calls from their answering machine on a semi-​regular basis for more than two years now.)
If I had nothing at all I suppose it would be worth it to get some goods in direct exchange for my time — especially if I had no job to fill that time making money or being otherwise productive — but if you have the $ 25 and need food, you might find more value in the early hours and the back shelves of the mark down items at the local supermarket.
I found the most useful things in their package to be a couple loaves of very stale bread and some milk, but most of the produce was not useful. We were given a large entire flat of nectarines which had been frozen and even had they been palatable would have to be consumed almost immediately or they would soon rot. I imagine this is because what is donated was unsuitable for retail sale to begin with (and there is probably a tax deduction for donation that doesn’t apply if they were to simply throw the stuff out.)
I did not find it to be a good value for the $ 25, and probably not even for the hours of time I would have spent if I hadn’t had that much., but then again, I have no children to feed or cloth either. But I feel like giving them my phone number was akin to selling my soul and I wish I had never opened that particular avenue of torture.
If you get down and out enough that you end up on the street it may be worth knowing the place exists to stave off starvation, but if you are in a decent enough position to be able to read this review on a computer screen I don’t recommend it. In fact, you would probably get more value from the good karma earned by DONATING better and more useful items to World Harvest Food Bank to improve someone else’s desperate experience there.
Whatever your situation, please don’t give them your personal data. I don’t see it as necessary for them or you to disclose that. It has been the aftermath since our visit to World Harvest Food Bank, that has taken such a toll on me mentally and emotionally that I deeply regret the one time we accepted their help.
[This is a rewritten version of a review that was flagged and removed — I have attempted to make it as diplomatic as possible but I have profoundly negative misgivings that I have tempered in the interest of communication and awareness of something I see as a problem. But I do also want to clearly impress on people the fact that I am very ANGRY about my overall experience with World Harvest Food Bank but am limiting the expression of it so that the information be allowed to remain.]