On September 23, 2023, Project Angel Food’s highly anticipated summer gala, the Angel Awards, returned after a three-year pandemic hiatus, and took place under the stars just outside the agency’s kitchen on Vine Street in Hollywood. The parking lot was transformed from the launch pad of 125,000 meals per month, to one of the most beautiful event spaces in Los Angeles – where compassionate donors, friends and thousands of volunteers who make Project Angel Food’s life-saving work possible have been celebrated.
This year Project Angel Food broke the mold, doing something they had never done before – they presented actor, advocate and Emmy-winning star of ABC’s Abbott Elementary, Sheryl Lee Ralph, with the inaugural The Sheryl Lee Ralph Legacy Award. This award will recognize individuals or organizations who demonstrate remarkable and lasting support for Project Angel Food and the marginalized communities they serve and be presented in Ms. Ralph’s honor for decades to come.
Jewel
Annika Noelle
For 25 years, Angel Awards has honored a distinguished list of recipients including Jamie Lee Curtis, Elizabeth Taylor, Whoopi Goldberg, Eric McCormack, Sharon Stone, Judith Light, Jane Lynch, Olivia Newton-John, Aileen Getty, Shirley MacLaine and George Michael. Performers and presenters have included Adam Lambert, Ariana Grande, Maria Shriver, Amy Adams, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, k.d. lang, Mary Wilson and Barry Manilow.
Angel Awards is crucial to funding Project Angel Food as event revenue goes directly toward agency operations to purchase food (up 81%), fuel (up 61%) and other essential supplies to meet the growing demand for meals. Project Angel Food increased services to the LA community by 54% post pandemic and they currently prepare, and hand deliver free meals to more than 4,000 men, women and children living with severe illnesses annually throughout 4,753 square miles of LA County – 2,500 on any given day.