My dear friend since high school, Jolene, needs a little help to get back on her feet. With only a week's notice, the restaurant Bar Chelou where she worked as garde manger and pastry chef closed due to concerns over business in the aftermath of the devastating Altadena fires. There's an LA Times article about it here. This closure left her and her coworkers abruptly jobless: virtually no notice and scrambling to find something that pays a living wage in LA, which as we might know is really tough.

Jolene truly does it all: is a champion friend, fantastic vegan chef, incredibly kind and genuine human, and works extremely, extremely hard to make ends meet and do what she loves, which is making delicious food and being a super friend to the animals. In her (very little) free time, she volunteers at the Safarmi Sanctuary in LA where she helps out critters of all kinds: from scooping tortoise poop to bringing disabled baby goats for walks in a stroller, she's a good pal to rescued animals as well as being a good pal to humans.

Without a regular paycheck and very little time to apply for unemployment, get approved for it, and start getting payments, Jolene won't be able to continue living in her apartment where she's lived for the past 5+ years with her two cat sons, Kasha and Ludovic, and three foster kittens. Basically, this job loss was a swift kick in the teeth that quickly made it impossible to afford her current housing, utilities, food, etc. The farm sanctuary Safarmi where Jolene volunteers her free time has graciously agreed to temporarily house her in one of their trailers in exchange for caring for their animals, but she just needs a little boost to help pay unpaid bills and keep her and her kitties fed until more permanent housing and work can be found.

Here's where we come in and help. I've set a modest goal of $1K to help pad her last month's rent and remaining utilities. Any little bit is helpful so that we can keep our pal and her animals safe, comfortable, and have a little stability. Thank you so so very much!