Billie Eilish and Joaquin Phoenix Among Volunteers Handing Out Vegan Food to Homeless Youth
The food drive in Hollywood delivered vegan meals to a local organization supporting homeless youth, and marks the first-year anniversary of the charity Support + Feed, founded by Eilish's mother.
Credit: My Friend’s Place/Facebook
Billie Eilish, Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara were among the volunteers handing out vegan food to young people experiencing homelessness.
The food drive helped distribute vegan meals to My Friend’s Place, a Los Angeles-based organization that supports homeless youth.
And it marked the one-year anniversary of Support + Feed, a 'community resource' created by Eilish's mum, Maggie Baird, who was in attendance alongside her husband, Patrick O'Connell.
“At a time when most people were worried about their own health and security, Maggie dreamed up and implemented a plan to get nourishing food to people who needed it most”, Mara and Phoenix explained.
The plan was conceived in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when Baird decided to order some food from her favorite vegan restaurant in Los Angeles and deliver it to a local organization assisting the homeless.
Her aim was three-fold: to provide nourishment and support to those "in food apartheids, plagued by food insecurity"; to help vegan small businesses that had been hit hard by the pandemic; and to combat climate change.
Since then, with the help of volunteers and plant-based restaurants, the initiative is now thriving in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. Over 50,000 plant-based meals were served last year across the four locations.
“What we imagined as a few months' worth of effort became a year of full-time volunteering for so many and now, as we have seen the impact that receiving this nourishing, delicious food has had for people and also knowing that every plant-based meal we serve has a positive impact on climate change, we are more committed than ever”, said Baird.
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