An organization called Food Forward is obtaining unsold produce in order to fight food insecurity in Southern California, a problem felt heavily by the Latino community.

Food Forward is a volunteer organization that "rescues fresh local produce that would otherwise go to waste, connecting this abundance with people in need, and inspiring others to do the same," according to its official website.

According to Luis Yepiz, Food Forward's wholesale recovery manager, being mindful of food waste is part of his Latino heritage.

"In my culture, the way I was raised, I was always taught that throwing out good food is a sin," Yepiz, who is from the Mexican state of Sonora, said in an interview with EFE.

Yepiz said that the organization is collecting fruits and vegetables from stores that were not able to sell the produce.

"[Food Forward is] trying to do everything possible to ... reduce the [amount of discarded food] from retail companies that sell fruits and vegetables so that the people who need it can receive it," he explained.

Food Forward was founded in 2009 by Rick Nahmias, a photographer. When entrepreneurs in the food business learned of the group, they started calling it so they could donate to the cause.

"There are products, for example like cabbage, that if they get a little yellow on the outside they can't be sold, and so [the businessmen] donate it to us," Yepiz said.

According to Antonio Oliva, quality control manager for food distributor M&M, the food is donated to families with low incomes or people who are unemployed.

"So, instead of throwing it out, we contact the companies that collect donations," he said. "We prefer to donate it like that instead of throwing it into the trash."

EFE reports that 6.17 million out of California's 38 million residents are food insecure. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County alone, which has 10 million residents, 1.6 million people do not have food security.

According to Yepiz, many of those suffering are Latinos.

"Eighty percent of the people we help in Los Angeles and other nearby counties are Latinos," he said.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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