Celebrities And Volunteers Help Project Angel Food Serve Thousands Of Thanksgiving Meals As Kitchen Prepares To Move Back To Hollywood

Before most people had started their coffee on Thanksgiving morning, Project Angel Food Thanksgiving meals were already rolling off the line in a Lincoln Heights warehouse that has served as the group’s temporary kitchen for the past year and a half. Dozens of volunteers stood shoulder to shoulder, packing more than 3,000 turkey dinners for Angelenos who cannot easily leave home for the holiday.

For the nonprofit, which serves clients across Los Angeles County, including here in and around West Hollywood, it was both a familiar routine and a goodbye. This was the last big holiday production day at the Lincoln Heights site before the organization starts moving its operations back to a newly expanded Hollywood campus.

Celebrity volunteers step up 

The morning crowd mixed longtime volunteers with a roster of familiar faces from TV, radio and comedy. Yvette Nicole Brown and her husband, Anthony Davis, joined Loni Love, Amanda Kloots, Will Sasso, Amy Yasbeck, Michael Hitchcock, singer Ava Maybee, Brooke Burns and her husband, director Gavin O’Connor. Karl Schmid, Lawrence Zarian, Lisa Foxx, Mary-Margaret Humes, Nancy Lenehan, Rebecca Metz and Trisha Cardoso, president and chief giving officer of The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation, also stepped in wherever they were needed.

Cardoso, whose foundation’s name will anchor the expanded campus, said the morning felt like an antidote to the headlines most people wake up to. “One of the special things about volunteering with Project Angel Food is that at a time when there is so much negativity in the world, Project Angel Food helps us focus on hope,” she said.

Volunteers moved down the line preparing turkey, gravy, adding sides and sealing trays. Others packed up bags to go with volunteer drivers later in the day so clients would not have to spend Thanksgiving alone.

A surprise welcome back for an old friend

There was another emotional moment in the middle of the organized chaos. KTLA 5’s Gayle Anderson, returning to the KTLA Morning News after three months away recovering from hip surgery, came to cover the event. Live on air, Project Angel Food CEO Richard Ayoub and comedian Loni Love surprised her with flowers as staff and volunteers cheered around them.

Bridging the gap during a big move

The Thanksgiving push did more than cover one day. Staff and volunteers prepared extra meals so that clients would be covered during the two-week transition between closing the Lincoln Heights kitchen and reopening in Hollywood at what will be The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus.

The new kitchen, which Project Angel Food describes as double the size and energy efficient, is designed to eventually produce three times as many medically tailored meals as the current operation. A second building on the campus is slated to begin construction in 2026.

For Ayoub, Thursday’s scene was a reminder of what it took to get through an 18-month expansion without interrupting service for people living with serious illness. “More than anything, I feel gratitude, for the nearly 6,000 people who volunteered with us this year, for those by our side this morning, and for the staff and donors who make this work possible,” he said. “Project Angel Food exists to lift up our most weary neighbors, and on a day devoted to giving thanks we are especially grateful for all who share their time and resources so we can keep delivering medically tailored meals with love, dignity and compassion.”

Celebrities share why they keep showing up

Brown said the morning felt like the right response to a hard year. “It’s a difficult time for everybody right now,” she said. “And everyone needs to show up and be one of the helpers like Mr. Rogers asked us to be.”

Love, who has made Thanksgiving at Project Angel Food part of her routine for the past five years, kept it simple. “It’s about family, it’s about giving back,” she said between shifts on the line.

Kloots volunteered with her six-year-old son, Elvis, who helped out alongside the adults. “It’s the best way to start a Thanksgiving morning, volunteering and giving back to such a wonderful organization that does so much for others,” she said.

Sasso, back for another year, talked about the power of something as basic as a hot meal. “We volunteered last year, and I said yes the second I was asked,” he said. “It’s one of the few things where you can show up with something that immediately means love. And food is love.”

Powered by donors, good coffee and a lot of volunteers

The early shift was powered by Don Francisco’s Coffee, which provided coffee for volunteers. The day’s meals were underwritten by the Stanley and Joyce Black Family Foundation. Jill Black joined the packing line herself, bagging meals next to other volunteers and staff.

Those sponsors are part of a much larger support system that keeps the kitchen going year round. Project Angel Food now prepares roughly 1.5 million medically tailored meals each year for more than 7,100 people in Los Angeles County living with serious illnesses such as HIV, cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Since its founding in 1989, the nonprofit has served more than 20 million meals.

Volunteers are the heartbeat that keeps everything going. In the past year alone, nearly 5,814 volunteers worked more than 15,000 shifts and logged just under 48,000 hours, a contribution the organization estimates saves more than a million dollars in salaries. That helps keep 89 cents of every dollar raised going back into food, nutrition services and the infrastructure needed to deliver meals to doorsteps from the Valley to the South Bay and communities like West Hollywood in between.

As dishwashers, flash freezers and other equipment start making their way back to Hollywood in the days after Thanksgiving, the Lincoln Heights kitchen will quiet down. But for thousands of clients, the impact of this last holiday push from the temporary space will be on their tables, in the form of a meal that shows up when they need it most.