AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram — 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 17th con­sec­u­tive year that the Auen Foun­da­tion has sup­port­ed this program.

“Since we began giv­ing to orga­ni­za­tions in the Coachel­la Val­ley, AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram – Food Samar­i­tans has stood out as an orga­ni­za­tion that ful­fills a basic need for some of our community’s most vul­ner­a­ble res­i­dents,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer for the Auen Foun­da­tion. “Our entire grant direct­ly sup­ports client ser­vice, not admin­is­tra­tion costs. And because AAP receives a 6 per­cent dis­count from Stater Broth­ers off the val­ue of the pur­chased food vouch­ers, our grant is effec­tive­ly val­ued at 106 percent.”

AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram – 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.

“This kind of long-term sup­port from the Auen Foun­da­tion is not only cru­cial to help­ing us con­tin­ue to fund AAP, but demon­strates the kind of com­mit­ted part­ner­ships that we have been for­tu­nate to forge over the last twen­ty five years,” said Mark Anton, CEO and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of AAP. “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.”

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