This Thanksgiving Give Thanks by Supporting Angelfood Jenn's Mission of Giving Food!

This Thanksgiving meet Jenn Holden, the angel that is working to help eradicate hunger in Redwood City. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jenn started her Angel Food service in 2011. Having experienced hunger herself as a fifteen year old living on the streets spending the nights in the street cars of San Francisco, she remembers the challenge that being hungry can be. She has also traveled to India and Guatemala and helped small communities abroad as well as worked as the assistant manager at the Maple Street homeless shelter and the food manager at Samaritan House.

Four years ago she decided to strike out on her own. She has worked with local schools and groups that include Hoover, Taft, John Gil, Fair Oaks, the Riekes Center, Spring St. Shelter, Veterans center in Palo Alto and even distributed food in the summer direct to the homes and apartments of families that attend these schools. For the fact is that for a lot of these families the subsidized and free school food programs provide a material amount of the food actually eaten.Unfortunately however there is no food on week-ends or holidays, which is why Jenn generally distributes her Angel Food bags on Fridays.Teachers at schools have told Jenn that Monday mornings can be the hardest for them as children arrive clearly at their hungriest and so have trouble focusing in class.

Not surprisingly given the increasingly more expensive nature of life in the area, the need has only grown and the actual hard costs of the food has also grown.For the reality is that legislation such as the passage of more humane living condition requirements for chickens has more than doubled the price of eggs and so when the price of eggs is out of reach, Jenn supplements her bags with other proteins. Or when the price of fresh tomatoes, onions, and mangoes goes up because of the drought, a budget that a couple of years ago would fed a larger group doesn’t go as far.

Recently Jenn has expanded by allowing some of the families she has helped become givers and in so doing made her mission into more of a circle of giving, rather than just a vertical top to bottom helping hand. Her goal is to engage some of the moms she has been helping with groceries to help her help more families. Some newly added projects include Smoothie Days at Fair Oaks Elementary School, Monthly birthday/craft parties at The Redwood Family House, lunches at the VA hospital in Palo Alto, and as many good deeds as her funding allows. Clearly all these programs need money to grow. Money goes to buying fresh fruits and vegetables for smoothies, birthday cakes and most importantly groceries for making lunches and filling bags.

Angel Food Jenn has just teamed up with the Woodside Community Foundation which means that your Thanksgiving (and year around hint, hint, hint) contributions to her efforts are now not only greatly appreciated by the families she serves but are also tax deductible. To contribute now through the Woodside Community Foundation, please click here.

(https://woodsidegiving.org/what-we-fund/angel-food-fund.html)

Or find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/angelfoodjenn