Mark Taper Foundation Awards Project Angel Food Generous $100,000 Grant for Meal Delivery Program

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Project Angel Food is pleased to announce a generous $100,000 grant from the S. Mark Taper Foundation to be used toward the agency’s home-delivered medically tailored meal and nutrition programs in 2021. The grant comes at a time when the program has seen a record-setting increase in the number of critically ill clients Project Angel Food serves, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deemed an essential service by Mayor Eric Garcetti, Project Angel Food has enrolled and served more clients in a shorter time span than ever before – feeding 2,300 people per day, up from 1,500 per day in February 2020, an increase of 54%.

Richard Ayoub, Executive Director of Project Angel Food says, “At this critical time it does not surprise me that the S. Mark Taper Foundation has stepped up for Project Angel Food as they have for so many other non-profits in Southern California. We are grateful for this gift, especially during this period when we are serving more meals than ever before in our 31-year history.”

Project Angel Food’s population mirrors L.A.’s diversity: 34.8% Latino, 28.1% African-American, 25.5% Caucasian, 6.9% Asian/Pacific Islander, 0.7% Native American, and 4.1% other. Ninety-seven percent live below the Federal Poverty Level. Over 75% cannot afford the cost of both food and rent, and, as their only source of food, Project Angel Food stands between them, homelessness and hunger. They live with HIV/AIDS, Cancer, Congestive Heart Failure, CVA-stroke, Alzheimer’s, COPD-emphysema, severe Diabetes, and End-Stage Renal Disease.

Adrienne Wittenberg, Executive Director of the S. Mark Taper Foundation, says, “Because of the diversity and needs of the clients they serve, and their commitment to improving quality of life through their medically tailored meal and nutrition programs, Project Angel Food allows us to work toward our mission of easing the systemic disenfranchisement of people on the basis of race, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability in Southern California.”

The S. Mark Taper Foundation bestows grants to non-profit organizations in the areas of the arts, civic affairs, education, environment, health, and social services throughout Southern California.

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