Hi friends — Lauren here your friendly neighborhood prop stylist who occasionally has leftover objects from photoshoots.

Recently, I ended up with a dozen plastic crates after a shoot. Rather than let them become yet another stylish but useless storage system in my garage, I decided to turn them into something good.

Enter my birthday wish for this year (Nov 26th)!

Help me fill these crates with food, provisions, and household items for families in need in the Los Angeles area.

As we all know, LA has been going through it — fires, the entertainment industry downturn ripple effect, the gov’t shutdown affecting SNAP benefits, and devastating ICE raids harming our neighbors. It feels impossible to do nothing… so for my birthday, I want to do something.

The plan:

Over the next few weeks I’ll be filling and organizing these crates with essentials, and then delivering them to a school in South LA, where my friend is a principal and sees firsthand how many families are struggling.

✨ How to help:

Anything big or small helps — $5? $20? Canned foods, dried beans, pasta, toiletries, school snacks, household supplies, grocery store gift cards, etc. Feel free to drop things off to me in Highland Park or donate here to a shopping fund for me to go shopping and stretch every dollar to pack these crates thoughtfully.

While I would LOVE to be able to do this on my own, I know the impact would be so much more successful and abundant with more of us… I’d be so grateful for your help.

Thank you all — truly.

Lauren