To the editor: “Eat real food” is great advice, but only if you know what that means (“‘Eat real food’ is great advice, but it’s only part of the equation,” March 30).
At Venice Family Clinic, a nonprofit community health center for underserved Angelenos, we hear from patients daily who don’t know what healthy food looks like — or whether they can afford it. One recent patient put it plainly: “No one ever told me what ‘eating healthy’ means until I started going to nutrition class.”
That education, along with access to healthy food, saves both lives and money.
Last year alone, our clinic educated more than 2,000 Angelenos through nutrition classes, healthy cooking and outreach programs while distributing nearly 1 million pounds of free, healthy food across Los Angeles.
But those free-to-the-community programs are now in danger. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the CalFresh Healthy Living (SNAP-Ed) program was eliminated in October 2025. This program previously funded nutrition and cooking classes that help our patients prevent and address chronic diseases including diabetes and heart disease.
Without additional funding, food education programs like ours will eventually disappear, and vulnerable patients who depend on them will have nowhere else to turn.
Access to healthy food matters. So does education on what to do with it. Let’s make sure we continue to fund and provide both.
Mitesh Popat, Los Angeles
This writer is chief executive of Venice Family Clinic.
