With a kind smile and friendly attitude, Sarisa Ransom has been volunteering with Project Angel Food for more than a decade.

“Philanthropy has been ingrained in me since childhood and when I moved to L.A., I tried many different organizations and Project Angel Food was the only one that I felt I could actually see the direct impact in the community,” Sarisa said. “They’re also the nicest people … and even after I left my job, I just kept coming back. They can’t get rid of me.”

As the longtime volunteer packed away breakfast snacks like milk, oranges and cheese sticks one morning, she said the flexible schedule and care taken with each meal also made it easy to keep coming back to Project Angel Food.

“They take such care in preparing the meals and even when you volunteer in the kitchen you see the different dietary needs are being addressed with different meals,” Sarisa said. “Over the years, I’ve just seen that they take so much care with it that I feel like they’re probably the best at it.”

Another encouraging factor that keeps Sarisa coming back is the direct impact she sees from Project Angel Food.

“I mainly support Project Angel Food because you can see in your community the direct impact that your service has,” Sarisa said. “You can even go and deliver meals to these people and have conversations with them and really interact if you want.”

Sarisa said she’s confident Project Angel Food will continue to reach its goals and feed many more people as the years go by.

“I’d love for them to be able to get enough support to be able to continue doing the good work and to inspire people to really volunteer,” Sarisa said. “Even if you don’t have money you can always be donating your time and that’s something I’m always trying to stress amongst my friends and peers. It’s not always about money. Your time is valuable and you could be giving that too to help someone else because we’re all so fortunate and you should do that.”

If you would like to volunteer at Project Angel Food, please sign up at angelfood.org/volunteer.