AAP — Food Samar­i­tans (AAP) announced today that the Auen Foun­da­tion recent­ly award­ed a $25,000 grant to the orga­ni­za­tion to sup­port its food vouch­er pro­gram for low-income Coachel­la Val­ley res­i­dents who suf­fer from HIV/AIDS and oth­er chron­ic ill­ness­es. This is the 18th con­sec­u­tive year that the Auen Foun­da­tion has sup­port­ed this pro­gram.

“We are impressed by the AAP – Food Samar­i­tans recent expan­sion of its mis­sion,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer for the Auen Foun­da­tion. “For more than 26 years, this orga­ni­za­tion has offered nutri­tion­al sup­port to Coachel­la Val­ley res­i­dents that need it the most. Orig­i­nal­ly, AAP was focused on serv­ing peo­ple liv­ing with HIV/AIDS, but they recent­ly expand­ed their mis­sion to include peo­ple liv­ing with oth­er chron­ic ill­ness­es. We applaud this expan­sion and out­reach to some of our community’s most vul­ner­a­ble res­i­dents.”

AAP – Food Samar­i­tans was found­ed in 1991 to help the most at-risk mem­bers of the Greater Palm Springs com­mu­ni­ty – peo­ple who are low-income and com­pro­mised by HIV/AIDS. It recent­ly expand­ed its ser­vices to include peo­ple suf­fer­ing from can­cer, MS, heart or liv­er dis­ease, and oth­er chron­ic ill­ness­es. Its ongo­ing mis­sion is to ensure that all AAP clients can con­tin­ue to live their lives with dig­ni­ty and self-respect.

“I’m pleased that AAP – Food Samar­i­tans has had such a ben­e­fi­cial and long-stand­ing rela­tion­ship with the Auen Foun­da­tion,” said Mark Anton, CEO and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of AAP. “Their ongo­ing sup­port of AAP has played a vital role in ensur­ing that we con­tin­ue to ful­fill our mis­sion of pro­vid­ing month­ly nutri­tion­al sup­port to low income Coachel­la Val­ley res­i­dents who live with chron­ic ill­ness. AAP does not receive fed­er­al or state finan­cial assis­tance, so gen­er­ous pri­vate dona­tions like this allow us to con­tin­ue to sup­port the peo­ple who need it most.”