VIBRANT FOOD AID
HELPING PEOPLE
A woman’s voice trembles on the other end of the phone—hesitant, emotional. Through tears, she expresses deep gratitude for the plant-based meals she received to feed her children. Her husband had died during the pandemic, and with a mandated quarantine keeping her from work, she had no way to provide for her three young kids. Stories like hers are why the Giant Steps Foundation (GSF) is committed to delivering organic, healthy, vegan food to individuals and families facing food insecurity.
For some, the situation is especially severe with approximately 25% of American Indians experiencing chronic food insecurity—more than twice the rate of white Americans.1 Communities facing food insecurity often also contend with limited access to transportation, subminimum wages, and long working hours—conditions that lead to disproportionately high rates of serious health issues such as cancer, obesity, and diabetes.
In the U.S. alone, over 66.8 million adults and children struggle with food insecurity.2 Many of them, like this mother, rely on the generosity of others to get through periods of crisis. In response, GSF created the Vibrant Food Aid Fund—to ensure that more communities have consistent access to nutritious, plant-based food.
WHAT COULD YOU SURVIVE ON?
USDA Government Aid VS Vibrant Food Aid
USDA government food aid box for families of four: Gallon of milk, oranges, hot dogs, block of cheese, head of lettuce, onions, potatoes, yogurt, and chicken. Delivered sporadically.
VFA box for families or four: Packed full of organic, healthy, plant-based foods along with recipes and a list of local resources that also help people and pets. Delivered weekly.
HELPING ANIMALS
By serving plant-based food, Vibrant Food Aid also alleviates the plight of over 9,000,000,000 farmed animals3 and diminishes our dependence on factory farming. In just a few generations, factory farming has transformed America.
- It has polluted our water and air, ruining quality of life for people who live near animal confinements.4
- It has altered entire landscapes, helping drive the conversion of much of the Midwest’s biodiverse prairie grasslands to soy and cornfields5 in order to grow feed6 for billions of animals warehoused in industrial sheds.
- It heightens the risk of another zoonotic pandemic,7 and
- Finally it causes unfathomable suffering for the animals themselves.
Vibrant Food Aid is a win-win for people and animals.
Join Us
Help Families in Need and Protect Animals
To donate to the Vibrant Food Aid fund, please mail your contribution to the address below. One hundred percent of your tax-deductible donation will go directly toward supporting families who require help.
Giant Steps Foundation
325 Sharon Park Dr #746
Menlo Park, CA 94025
History
Supporting Communities Through Crisis
Vibrant Food Aid started in February 2020 as Vegan Food Aid when the pandemic became a reality around the world. Although the virus infects anyone regardless of heritage, sex, or wealth, the economic impacts of the pandemic were more deeply felt in financially constrained communities. These struggling families had no monetary safety nets to get through lost jobs, sick time or mandated quarantines.
Giant Steps Foundation, through our nonprofit partner, served more than 3,098,737 plant-based meals during the two and a half years they ran the program. Here are some highlights and accomplishments of Vegan Food Aid:
- Worked with Cherokee Nation to deliver grocery boxes providing over 674,000 meals.
- Delivered over 1,474,000 meals and groceries to Albuquerque families and the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and Arizona.
- Delivered over 323,453 meals and groceries to food-insecure families in Redwood City.
- Collaborated with two African-American led nonprofits to provide 176,000 hot meals and groceries to families in Los Angeles.
- Delivered over 72,000 groceries and hot meals from local restaurants directly to the homes of farmworker families in Dixon, California and food-insecure families in Sacramento and Stockton, California.
- In partnership with the League of United Latin American Citizens Iowa, we’ve delivered 138,000 meals to those in cities dealing with raids and that were sites of some of the worst COVID-19 factory farm outbreaks in Iowa.
- Collaborated with the nonprofit Brave Space Alliance in Chicago to serve over 155,000 meals.
- Partnered with the Center for Farmworker Families to provide over 6,800 hot meals and groceries to farmworkers in Watsonville, California.
- Provided over 16,000 grocery bags to at-risk populations, refugees from IRC, and families from various nonprofits in the San Diego area.
- Recipes provided with groceries to educate people about creating plant-based meals.
GRANT RECIPIENTS
