Harvesting HOPE
Actress Maggie Baird, mother to singer-songwriters Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, channels her nurturing nature into feeding more people with plant- based foods through her organization, Support+Feed.
by LILY MOAYERI photographs by ZOE SHER
/ COMMUNITY SPR UT
In a way, Baird has been training for her position as the head of the nonprofit for over two decades. Her offspring — staunch vegans who are environmentally proactive — are Baird’s first successful conversions. As Finneas said in a speech at a Support+Feed fundraiser in the fall of 2023, “[We] made a bunch of music in our bedroom. We paid off our mom’s mortgage, and she turned around and started a nonprofit immediately.” Four years since its inception, Support+Feed’s mission has grown to encourage plant-based food consumption and climate-change mitigation through food delivery, education, and empowerment.
“It’s important for the community organization to have a stake and to value the meals and the education surrounding them.” That education can be as simple as a sticker on the meal package that indicates it is plant- based and therefore good for the consumer and the planet. For many individuals, it is the first time they are having a wholly plant- based meal and Support+Feed wants to make them aware of that fact. Although, Baird says, “there are times when I think it’s important to give people plant-based food and not have them know because they’re so prejudiced against it.”
Despite having just a dozen team members spread across the U.S. (and one staffer in Europe), Support+Feed has a global presence, operating in 41 cities internationally. The organization is made up of coordinators who serve as ground leaders for the cities in which they are based. Support+Feed also relies on its more than 150 volunteers who take care of the physical aspects of the organization such as deliveries. They are stationed in key North American cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, and Detroit. The nonprofit has delivered hundreds of thousands of high-quality, plant-based meals through its partnerships with over 130 restaurants and community organizations that serve food- insecure and food-inequity groups in their areas. “A restaurant meal is our door opener,” says Baird. Support+Feed purchases only plant-based meals, but not all of them come from exclusively plant- based restaurants — although they encourage restaurants to offer more meatless options. However, not every community organization Support+Feed works with has had a positive attitude toward plant-based meals. “We’ve had organizations we worked with that in the beginning only wanted the plant-based donuts we offered. But they have come around,” Baird says.
“How exciting is food right now?!” exclaims Maggie Baird. Mother to award-winning superstars Billie Eilish and Finneas, Baird has just returned from a week in Asia as part of Eilish’s core team. In Tokyo, Baird tried three vegetables she’d never heard of. “There are so many fruits, vegetables, and grains we’re being allowed to discover because we’re embracing new things,” Baird, the founder and president of the plant- based food and sustainability nonprofit, Support+Feed, tells The Rooted Journal. “I like people to think not about what they might be taking away, but what they are getting. The idea that we have cashew cheese and coconut yogurt, that’s not deprivation. That’s really exciting.” AIRD’S ENTHUSIASM IS A HUGE driver for Support+Feed, which she started in 2020 in response to the closure of many plant-based restaurants and the escalating need for food — particularly healthy food — amid pandemic-related shortages. “Coming off a lifetime of loving to feed people and being involved in environmental action, I’ve always been very outspoken,” says Baird, speaking from her family home in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she and her husband raised Eilish and Finneas.
“On a larger scale, we’re trying to affect culture, making plant-based food more accessible with increased acceptance
ABOVE: MAGGIE BAIRD, FOUNDER OF SUPPORT+FEED. RIGHT: MAGGIE BAIRD
and demand, and influencing other
Support+Feed also delivers donated food products and ingredients whose shelf life is approaching, as well as produce through nonprofits such as The Farmlink Project. “We’re throwing away so much fresh produce and
organizations to also take these things into account. Our mission is the intersectional vision of it,” Baird says.
AT A SUPPORT+FEED FOOD DISTRIBUTION
EVENT IN LOS ANGELES CALLED “WONDALUNCH” IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SJLI AND JANELLE MONAE’S WONDALAND.
12
13
ISSUE 01
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online