John Heilman made his first donation as West Hollywood’s mayor Monday night, giving a thousand dollars to Project Angel Food at a City Council meeting where he also gave the nonprofit a certificate of recognition.
Heilman said when he was sworn in as mayor, he decided he’d donate a thousand dollars to different organizations each month. Project Angel Food got the first check.
“I would encourage everyone to donate to Project Angel Food and to volunteer for Project Angel Food, because their work continues,” Heilman told the council. “The need for their service has expanded greatly due to the impacts that we’re seeing from the federal government.”
Richard Ayoub, CEO of Project Angel Food, was there to accept the donation and the certificate. He told the council West Hollywood has been a major supporter of the nonprofit, which started in the city back in 1989.
“The city of West Hollywood has contributed to our capital campaign to the tune of $400,000,” Ayoub said. “So thank you very much for that.”
The city approved that $400,000 subsidy back in May 2025 to help pay for the new kitchen expansion.
New kitchen triples capacity
Ayoub said the new kitchen opens in three days. It cost $20 million and took 17 months to build. The kitchen will let Project Angel Food serve three times as many people as they do now.
“We’re gonna go from 1.5 million meals a year to 4.5 million meals a year,” Ayoub said.
The meals go to people living with HIV/AIDS, diabetes, kidney failure, heart failure and cancer. All of them get home-delivered meals for free.
Project Angel Food has been working out of a temporary kitchen in Lincoln Heights for the past year and a half while the new facility was under construction. The new campus is called The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus and sits at 922 and 960 Vine Street in Hollywood.
Ayoub said the bigger space means they need more volunteers. He told anyone interested to go to angelfood.org/volunteer.
“We’re gonna need three times as many volunteers because the space is so much bigger,” he said.
He also quoted Annie Lennox, who visited Project Angel Food after the fires last year. Ayoub said Lennox told him, “Project Angel Food turns helplessness into hope.”
“If anyone feels helpless and needs some hope, you are welcome in our home,” Ayoub said.
Heavy reliance on volunteers
Project Angel Food serves more than 7,100 people across Los Angeles County. West Hollywood residents got 43,652 meals between October 2023 and September 2024, according to city records.
The nonprofit relies heavily on volunteers. Last year, nearly 6,000 volunteers worked more than 15,000 shifts and logged about 48,000 hours. The organization says that volunteer labor saves them more than a million dollars in salaries and helps keep 89 cents of every dollar raised going back into food, nutrition services and meal delivery. Head over here for more information on how you can volunteer.
I believe the Saban family/trust had been funding Project Angel food, and the weho government aka Heilman refused to allow continuing contributions for a year or more. Life & Death could be on the line and Heilman has never had any interest in it … As long he is well fed paid and Supposedly setting up a Charitable Foundation in Malawi requiring many long trips there and back yearly. Never have found any proof of his having and donating a “Charitable Foundation” only at the time his article announcing his generosity, as such, that Malawi is the new gateway for… Read more »
Thank you, Mayor Heilman. 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼