Inside the cozy, beige-colored walls of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in downtown Los Angeles, UCLA students and families from different countries shared their own upbringings and experiences immigrating to the United States.
With plates full of fish, sweet potatoes and fruit salad covering the tables, one man described his time fighting during the Guatemalan Civil War for human rights. Others discussed the collective fear that comes with immigrating to a new country.
Eleven UCLA students – some who grew up thousands of miles away and some who have lived in California their entire lives – gathered on Thursday to put on the dinner party for families that hosted them during a weeklong community service program to learn about health and nutrition problems in areas of Los Angeles.
The Alternative Breaks program began in 1991 and is housed in the Community Service Commission. This year, the program expanded to include three new sites in San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Bakersfield, Calif. Other sites within the program included Best Friends Animal Society in Utah and New Orleans, where students worked to help rebuild a home damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Throughout the week, students engaged in volunteer activities within downtown Los Angeles and neighboring areas to understand the health and nutrition problems that arise within these communities. Limited options for cheap and healthy food exist in South Los Angeles, and fast-food chains comprise the majority of the city’s restaurants.
During their time with the homestay families in South Los Angeles, the students and families also learned about each other’s customs. Some tried different foods for the first time, such as fried plantains and pupusas – a Salvadoran dish made of tortillas, meat, beans and cheese.
Yun Zhou, a second-year mathematics/economics student and the site leader for downtown Los Angeles, said the trip changed some misconceptions she had about the neighborhood, though she had already learned about structural inequalities in Los Angeles before participating in the program.
“I came in thinking these people need help and we will try our best to serve them, but … some of them are taking two jobs a day,” Zhou said. “They’re the ones working hard and getting better lives each day.”
As part of their work to improve and learn about health and nutrition issues in the community, the UCLA students staying in Los Angeles volunteered at Hope Street Family Center throughout the week. The center provides educational, health and social services to low-income families.
In South Los Angeles, there is a high prevalence of diabetes, obesity, cancer and hypertension, according to a 2008 report from the Community Health Councils.
One of the issues contributing to the high incidence of health problems in the area are the prevalence of what experts call “food deserts,” or areas where affordable and nutritious options are scarce.
Almost nine liquor stores exist per square mile in South Los Angeles compared to about twostores in West Los Angeles.
“There’s only so much you can do to try and keep yourself healthy besides exercising and eating the right foods. Some things are out of your control,” said Lucy Bi, a third-year economics student and one of the site’s volunteers.
Each afternoon at the Hope Street Family Center, UCLA students prepared snacks for children and gave presentations about the benefits of healthy eating and exercise. Laughter and animated conversation filled the halls of the center while UCLA students were volunteering.
Some UCLA students on the trip expressed frustration with the issues that affect the city.
Anna Garfink, a third-year political science student, said she was able to see the problems affecting the community throughout the week as well as reflect on the privileges she had growing up.
Garfink added that while she thinks there are aspects of the city she has yet to fully comprehend, her experience can help her to continue feeling compassionate about the areas she visited.
Growing up in Koreatown, Roxana Martinez had to cope with the challenges of being raised by a single mother and having limited financial resources.
The second-year political science student said she feels a “compassionate anger” – one that stems from the desire to enact change in the immigrant community she grew up in.
For Martinez’s homestay, she lived with a family that had immigrated to the U.S. from Belize. Her homestay mother, Joy Thompson, arrived in South Los Angeles 25 years ago with her 3-year-old daughter and the hope that she could provide her family with the educational opportunities she never received.
Thompson, now a mother of four, said that getting the chance to see her youngest daughter graduate college one day gives her motivation to persevere.
“I’m going to keep myself healthy so I can see her do that,” she said. “I’m going to hang on to that.”
Because of the trip, some students said that they want to stay involved in the community and work to alert others to the inequalities they witnessed while in downtown Los Angeles and neighboring areas.
“Everybody supposedly receives the same things,” Martinez said. “But not in the same amounts that they need.”