Project Angel Food's annual Angel Awards returned on Saturday, Sept. 28, to honor six-time Emmy Award winner, five-time NAACP Image Award winner, Golden Globe winner, Debbie Allen Dance Academy and Debbie Allen Middle School founder and philanthropist Debbie Allen with the Humanitarian Angel Award, while Emmy-nominated actor Matt Bomer received the 2024 Angel Award.
Additionally, L.A. Care Health Plan and its CEO, John Baackes, was awarded the Sheryl Lee Ralph Legacy Award. The event, held at Milk Studios in Hollywood while construction is underway on Project Angel Food’s Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus, featured a performance by multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated singer Deborah Cox. Funds raised from the Angel Awards will support the organization’s operating costs, as Project Angel Food prepares and delivers more than 1.5 million medically tailored meals each year to people living with life-threatening illnesses at zero cost.
Actress and comedian Loni Love kicked off the event and introduced Project Angel Food CEO Richard Ayoub. Ayoub welcomed guests to the event, saying, “We are building a brand new, modern, state-of-the-art kitchen that will be able to feed three times as many people, with three times as many meals. You know how much that is? 4.5 million meals a year.” He continued, announcing, “By this time next year, we are going to be in a brand new kitchen! That’s just the beginning of our bold new vision, this is the Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus.”
After revealing the trailer for his upcoming film “The Performance,” actor Jeremy Piven stepped onstage to pay tribute to the milestone thirty-five year anniversary of Project Angel Food’s Angel Awards, saying, “The people Project Angel Food serves know the sting of being ostracized and cast aside. Through the AIDS crisis, COVID, and continuing today with a growing population of people in need; Project Angel Food nourishes over 2,700 seriously ill people every day with dignity and love, tens of thousands since 1989.”
Ron Nyswaner, the Emmy-nominated creator of “Fellow Travelers,” presented the 2024 Angel Award to Matt Bomer, a distinction previously bestowed on Mary Fisher, Jamie Lee Curtis, Elizabeth Taylor, George Michael, Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg, among others. Bomer, who was unable to attend in-person, accepted the honor virtually with a video message sharing that he and his three teenage sons have all volunteered at Project Angel Food. He said, “I’m incredibly grateful to everyone [at Project Angel Food] for the work that they do and the lives they impact in such a meaningful way.”
Actress Emily Osment stepped onstage to tell the story of two Project Angel Food clients, each living with a comorbidity. In a particularly poignant moment, Tim Bagley told the audience that he became involved with Project Angel Food in 1995 when his partner, who had kidney failure as a result of AIDS, became a client. Bagley said, “When he passed away I was devastated, and it was hard to kind of function, and I found myself not calling to tell the kitchen that Bill had passed, so I kept taking the meals and eating them for two weeks. When I finally called them I felt kind of guilty and confessed to them that I had been eating these meals, and they said, ‘We know. We’ve been sending them for you.’ It’s just an incredible organization, and I’ve been supporting Project Angel Food ever since.”
Actor/Director Juan Pablo Di Pace and media personality Rachel Lindsay presented the Sheryl Lee Ralph Legacy Award to L.A. Care Health Plan and its CEO, John Baackes. The award’s namesake, Sheryl Lee Ralph, offered her congratulations through a special video message, praising Baackes saying, “His belief that ‘food is medicine’ has revolutionized our work, making medically tailored meals a cornerstone of healthcare—delivering dignity, compassion, and access to those who need it most.” Baackes said, “I love Project Angel Food because we are on the side of the angels and social justice, and that gives me confidence and hope in the future. Project Angel Food and L.A. Care are like thousands of community-based organizations around our county, tens of thousands around our state, and hundreds of thousands around our country that do the work every day of looking after our fellow human beings, to bring social justice to everyone from healthcare, shelter, education, and food. I know as long as organizations like Project Angel Food continue to grow and thrive that we will be okay as a nation.”
Following a video message from Whoopi Goldberg and a moving tribute video, “Grey’s Anatomy” actor Jesse Williams took the stage to honor Debbie Allen with the Humanitarian Angel Award, sharing “For over 35 years, Debbie Allen has exemplified dignity, discipline, healing, and hope to thousands. Her lifelong commitment to grabbing us up by our elbows and lifting us up, especially those whose voices, talent, and potential are consistently ignored and unwarranted makes her the perfect recipient of tonight’s prestigious award.” Allen accepted the award, noting, “Tonight is so wonderful, because we are all here tonight. And yes, this is not really about me or [the] honorees who I love.. but it’s really about Project Angel Food, which has the right name because this organization is divine. It is divine. This is ground zero for humanity.”
Grammy-nominated singer Deborah Cox closed out the night with an unforgettable performance of hit songs including “I’m Every Woman,” “Nobody’s Supposed to be Here,” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” The performance was filmed by KTLA to be featured in Nexstar Media Group’s New Year’s Eve special, “Coast to Coast Countdown to 2025,” airing December 31, 2024.
Additional attendees included AJ Mayers, Amy Phillips, Cheryl Tiegs, Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami, Lauren Tom, Lisa Foxx, Lisa Stanley, Norm Nixon, Shira Piven, Stuart O’Keeffe, Tai Babilonia, and more.
Debbie Allen donated $25,000 to kick off an incredible live auction, led by Billy Harris. Offerings included an exclusive dinner with Matt Bomer at Steak 48 Beverly Hills that went for an outstanding $10,000 and a private chef’s dinner with Nancy Silverton in her exclusive Jack Warner Room nestled between Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza for $10,000. Harry Hamlin stepped onstage to auction off a home-cooked meal experience to the highest bidder, wherein Hamlin will cook his “famous” pasta bolognese at the winner’s home with wife, Lisa Rinna, which brought in $10,000. To conclude the live auction, guests had the opportunity to donate $100 to enter a sweepstakes in hopes of winning an exclusive Mexican Riviera Escape with three nights in an ocean casita at The Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita.
The Angel Awards were made possible through the support of Naming Sponsor L.A. Care Health Plan, along with Title Sponsor Wells Fargo, Presenting Sponsor Amazon, and Principal Sponsors Glamazon, Mary Fisher, Elgart Aster and Paul Swerdlove, plus The David Vickter Foundation.
