Project Angel Food celebrated the grand opening of the first building of The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen & Campus with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. The opening unveiled the first building of Project Angel Food’s future two-building campus, expanding its footprint from 922 Vine St. to 960 Vine St., marking a major milestone in the organization’s $51.5 million, multi-year expansion campaign to strengthen Project Angel Food’s ability to meet the rapidly growing demand for medically tailored meals and nutrition medicine among Los Angeles County’s critically ill neighbors.

The ceremony opened with remarks from Project Angel Food CEO Richard Ayoub, who welcomed guests and reflected on the significance of the milestone. Ayoub said, “This new building represents hope, growth, and the next chapter of our mission, so we can nourish our most vulnerable neighbors today, tomorrow, and for decades to come. Thanks to our partners, donors, and community leaders, we are expanding our capacity and strengthening our ability to respond when our community needs us most.” Ayoub added, “Thanks to transformative gifts from The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation and the S. Mark Taper Foundation, we’re opening this kitchen today — instead of still trying to figure out how to make it possible.”

Founder of The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Chuck Lorre followed, saying, “They have a policy, which struck me deeply, which was ‘food is medicine’… Food that nourishes and brings health, which meant a lot to me because as a much younger man, I was very ill, and nutrition actually turned it around for me. So I know something about how important it is to be fed properly. Not just fed, but fed properly. So when they said those words, ‘food is medicine,’ we were all in.”

Ayoub broke the news about a new gift from The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation. Upon learning that Project Angel Food was just $2.3 million short of the capital threshold needed to unlock millions more through a federal program that incentivizes corporations to invest in nonprofits like Project Angel Food, Mr. Lorre stepped forward with a bold, dollar-for-dollar matching grant — covering half of that amount, or $1.15 million — to inspire others to help the organization meet this critical funding goal.

Longtime supporter and Co-Chair of Project Angel Food’s “Rise to the Challenge” Capital Campaign Jamie Lee Curtis remarked on the importance of volunteerism and the progress that Project Angel Food has made and said, “I am so proud to stand here on behalf of the volunteers, the staff, the clients and those who came before us, and those who we all miss very, very much… This is run by volunteers. The heartbeat of Project Angel Food is volunteers.”

Additional speakers included Los Angeles artist Robert Vargas who spoke about his mural “Nourishing the Community” that spans the south side of the new building, L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath who presented a scroll to Richard Ayoub during the ceremony, President of the S. Mark Taper Foundation Amelia Taper Bolker, and Celeste Farrier, a Project Angel Food client living with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, who said that the organization’s medically tailored meals help her on days she’s too ill to cook for herself.

Additional guests included Judith Light & Robert Desiderio, who serve on Project Angel Food’s Board of Trustees, Lori Loughlin, artist and author Mary Fisher, Sandra Lee, Sharon Lawrence, Gregory Zarian, Marc Malkin, West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, Vice Mayor Danny Hang, Council Members Chelsea Lee Byers and John M. Erickson, and more. Following the ceremony, guests were invited to participate in tours of the new building.

The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen & Campus more than doubles Project Angel Food’s culinary footprint, expanding from approximately 7,700 square feet to 16,000 square feet and transforming the organization’s production capacity. The new kitchen increases hot cook lines from one to three, expanding annual capacity from 1.5 million meals to the ability to produce more than 4.5 million meals each year, with the ability to one day serve more than 10,000 people annually across Los Angeles County. The expansion also significantly increases core equipment and infrastructure — including ovens, burners, and blast chillers — calibrated to support the growing need for medically tailored meals.

The S. Mark Taper Foundation generously named the S. Mark Taper Foundation Operations Center, which will dramatically strengthen Project Angel Food’s operational resilience. The walk-in freezer space has expanded from approximately 1,670 square feet to 3,350 square feet; the dry storage grew from 450 square feet to 1,200 square feet, and packing and distribution areas have increased from 900 square feet to 2,200 square feet. These significant upgrades allow Project Angel Food to shift from maintaining a two-day frozen meal reserve to approximately a three-week supply, helping protect clients from service disruptions caused by disasters, pandemics and economic shocks.

Alongside these operational upgrades, The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen and Campus also includes the Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest Kitchen Volunteer Center, dedicated to Richard Frank and George Lowe, which underscores the campaign’s investment not only in expanded capacity, but the volunteers and community who power Project Angel Food’s mission.

The Feb. 5 opening marked the completion of the first phase of Project Angel Food’s transformation at 922 Vine St. The Rise to the Challenge campaign continues as Project Angel Food works to complete fundraising by June, enabling construction of a second, brand-new facility at 960 Vine St. Together, both buildings will form The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen & Campus. Construction on the second building is expected to begin next summer, with completion anticipated by the end of 2027.

About Project Angel Food

Project Angel Food nourishes the health and spirit of vulnerable people facing critical and life-threatening illness by preparing and delivering more than 1.5 million medically tailored meals to 7,152 clients each year with love, care and dignity. Since its founding by Marianne Williamson during the AIDS crisis in 1989, Project Angel Food has delivered more than 20 million meals. Project Angel Food is a Four-Star Rated Charity Navigator organization and has twice been named California’s Nonprofit of the Year.