California Educator

MARCH 2010

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/9051

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 25 of 39

Project Angel Food delivers meals to the ill O n Feb. 19 CTA President David A. Sanchez and CTA Board members Marty Meeden and Mary Rose Ortega spent a day volunteering at Project Angel Food, a charity that provides nutritious meal preparation and delivery service to people with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening ill- nesses throughout Los Angeles County. The visit was arranged through CTA’s Community Out- reach Department, which has helped CTA establish an ongoing connection to the charity. After an early morning arrival, the CTA visitors were joined by United Teachers Los Angeles member Harold Galvez and his eager class of fifth-graders. Galvez and his students made the early morning walk across the street from Vine Street Elementary School, which, like several other area schools, has developed a part- nership with Project Angel Food that allows regular visits from stu- dent volunteers. The enthusiastic children split into two groups — some contributing art to holiday and birthday gift bags, and others bagging up fruits and placing them into boxes for delivery — while Sanchez and the CTA Board members lent a hand. Project Angel Food was start- ed in 1989 by best-selling author Marianne Williamson. After a modest beginning serving 15 meals a day, the sharp increase in AIDS patients in the early 1990s quickly pushed the facility’s out- put to 250 meals daily. Project Angel Food has grown even more in the years since, relocating in 2007 to the new and larger Vine 26 California Educator | MARCH 2010 Street building, where 13,000 meals a week are prepared for about 1,600 clients. “For many of our clients this is the only fresh food they have access to,” says Margaret Steele, who serves as the program’s CEO. “Our ABOVE: CTA President David A. Sanchez preparing meals at Project Angel Food in Los Angeles. INSET: CTA Board member Mary Rose Ortega volunteers making nutritious meals. small staff includes some skilled culinary school trained chefs, who are really able to create delicious- ness on a budget. And the volun- teers make the rest possible.” Steele said that some patients who might not otherwise feel well enough or have the energy to eat often will eat knowing someone has cared enough to prepare and deliver a hot meal. While his students worked getting food ready for delivery, Galvez noted that many of them come from lower-income fami- lies that need and receive assis- tance of some kind. “These kids are here helping others and at the same time others are helping them,” he said. “That’s what com- munity is all about.” After an hour or so the stu- dents returned to their school, where Sanchez was the featured speaker for an assembly on vol- unteerism. “What is volunteering and why should we do it?” he asked the students. They enthusi- astically gave the CTA leader ex- amples of other types of volunteer work, and shared their ideas about the importance of helping others. Sanchez encouraged them to continue volunteering when- ever possible throughout their lives. “Helping each other makes the world better for everybody,” he told the youngsters. The CTA group then walked back to Project Angel Food, where they spent the rest of the morning slicing squash and placing it into tubs for meals to be prepared later. Like all facility volunteers, they re- ceived instructions about and worked under the extremely rigor- ous sanitation requirements for a facility serving meals to immune- compromised patients, self-im- posed requirements far stricter than normal restaurant regula- tions or health codes. “This was an outstanding ex- perience for us and for these stu- dents,” said Sanchez. “More dis- tricts should give their students opportunities like this. The earlier kids learn the value of helping oth- ers in need, the more likely they are to continue with important volunteer work in the future.” FRANK WELLS More information about Project Angel Food, including how to con- tribute or volunteer, is available at www.angelfood.org. See video footage of CTA leaders volun- teering at www.cta. org/project-angel. CTA photos by Frank Wells

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of California Educator - MARCH 2010