The Auen Foun­da­tion has award­ed a $15,000 grant to AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram (AAP) in sup­port of the organization’s food vouch­er pro­gram. The Auen Foun­da­tion began its sup­port of AAP in 1999, as one of the first Coachel­la Val­ley orga­ni­za­tions the Foun­da­tion ever funded.

“We’re approach­ing sum­mer, which is typ­i­cal­ly our most chal­leng­ing time because it’s the end of the sea­son, so this gen­er­ous dona­tion could not have come at a bet­ter time,” says Mark Anton, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of AAP. “Our main pri­or­i­ty is to pro­vide nutri­tion­al sup­port to our clients, and we couldn’t do it with­out our ongo­ing part­ner­ship with the Auen Foundation.”

Estab­lished in 1992, The Auen Foun­da­tion is ded­i­cat­ed to enhanc­ing the over­all qual­i­ty of life of the aging pop­u­la­tion and rais­ing aware­ness of the pre­cious-end-of-life stage. The Foun­da­tion sup­ports char­i­ta­ble pro­grams and ser­vices aimed at meet­ing the social needs of mature adults and their families.

“We love the ser­vice the Aids Assis­tance Pro­gram pro­vides peo­ple in our com­mu­ni­ty,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer for the Auen Foun­da­tion. “For peo­ple liv­ing with HIV and AIDS, hav­ing access to healthy food, means one less thing for them to wor­ry about. We applaud the efforts of AAP and the many oth­er part­ners involved in this impor­tant program.”

Since its found­ing in 1991, AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram remains ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing nutri­tion­al sup­port to improve the qual­i­ty of the lives of those sur­viv­ing HIV/AIDS. Ini­ti­at­ed by a small group of con­cerned cit­i­zens, led by the late Glo­ria Greene, Jean­nette Rock­e­feller, and Joan­na Jak­way, AAP pro­vid­ed meals to mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty with low incomes and suf­fer­ing with HIV/AIDS. Since then, the AAP client ros­ter has grown from 20 to approx­i­mate­ly 500 peo­ple. More than 8.5 mil­lion dol­lars has been dis­trib­uted to near­ly 2,000 low-income clients in the Greater Palm Springs area.

For more infor­ma­tion about AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram or to vol­un­teer or donate, please con­tact Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Mark Anton at (760) 325‑8481 or vis­it www.aidsassistance.org.
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