AHF Rose Parade® Float Honors ‘Food for Health’ Wildfire and Hunger Relief Efforts

Float honors AIDS nonprofit’s food banks and free farmers’ markets, veterans’ food programs along with Food for Health’s swift and sustained 2025 Southern California wildfire food relief efforts for evacuees and first responders

Float riders include partners from veterans and community agencies and businesses as well as Dolores Huerta, labor and civil rights icon who co-founded the United Farm Workers union

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) continues its decade-long tradition of participating in the Rose Parade^® presented by Honda, this year, with a Jack and the Beanstalk-themed float entry celebrating AHF’s “Food for Health” program to alleviate hunger and food insecurity nationwide. By the end of 2025, AHF’s Food for Health program will have served over half a million people across the country with weekly groceries.

Artistically, AHF’s Food for Health float features an oversized Jack and the Beanstalk character climbing skyward, surrounded by an assortment of enormous, larger-than-life vegetables–a pumpkin, carrots, tomatoes, eggplants, strawberries, potatoes, and more–as well as an old, classic pickup truck decked out and raring to go for a Food for Health farmers’ market.

Food for Health Program Successes in 2025:

• AHF’s float will celebrate Food for Health’s ongoing weekly work hosting free food pantries and farmers’ markets across the country, including “Heroes Pantries” for veterans and families in San Diego and at the West L.A. Veterans Center.
• The float will also honor Food for Health’s swift and sustained partnership and collaboration with the Los Angeles Fire Department following the eruption of the devastating Pacific Palisades wildfire last January. Within 14 hours of the start of that blaze, Food for Health was on the ground together with LAFD, delivering free hot meals that LAFD crews delivered to first responders up on the front lines. Over the next several weeks, Food for Health delivered over 75,000 hot meals—more than 15,000 to LAFD and other first responders in the Palisades, with an additional 60,000 hot meals to fire evacuees from the Eaton Fire sheltering at the Pasadena Convention Center.
• AHF and Food for Health were also among those first on the scene at the Pasadena Convention Center following the Eaton Fire, with free clothing from its Out of the Closet thrift store chain as well as 400 new blankets and 400 new pillows purchased specifically for fire evacuees.
• AHF’s float will also celebrate Food for Health’s partnership with the owners of Fairoaks Burger in Altadena. For eight months following the Eaton Fire, the Lee sisters and their Fairoaks Burger and Food for Health hosted free weekly community farmers’ markets in the restaurant’s parking lot for people impacted by wildfires and others experiencing hunger and food insecurity.
• Last year, Food for Health also launched Heroes Pantries in San Diego and Los Angeles, providing fresh produce and groceries to veterans and their families. Each pantry now serves approximately 200 families each week. Studies have shown that food insecurity among veterans is linked to poorer physical and mental health outcomes, including an increased risk of chronic diseases and mental health disorders. Addressing these food needs is critical for improving veterans’ overall health and well-being.

AHF “Food for Health” Float Riders for the 137^th Rose Parade^® presented by Honda:

Riders on AHF’s Rose Parade^® float include:

• Dolores Huerta, Dolores Huerta Foundation: Huerta, 95, is a labor, feminist, and civil rights icon who co-founded the United Farm Workers union alongside Cesar Chavez.
• Yesenia Contreras, Dolores Huerta Foundation
• Commander Wendy M. Calderon, District 1, California Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW-San Diego): Commander Calderon oversees two FFH “Heroes Pantries” serving veterans in the San Diego area.
• Bettye Randle, Champions of Caring Connections Executive Director, and retired/former Director of Health, Human, and Homeless Education Youth Services for the Compton Unified School District. Ms. Randle oversees eight Food for Health food distribution locations in South Los Angeles.
• Janet Lee and Christy Lee, Co-owners, Fairoaks Burger, Altadena. The Lee sisters worked closely with Food for Health and AHF to distribute food and essential items to their Altadena neighbors in need at free community farmers’ markets in the Fairoaks Burger parking lot.
• Thomas ‘Kit’ Kitahata, Captain II, Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD), Fire Station 69, Pacific Palisades. Kitahata and the LAFD were key to the successful partnership between Food for Health and LAFD in providing hot meals to firefighters and first responders during the Palisades Fire.
• Carlos Marroquin, National Director, AHF’s Food for Health program
• Tara O’Callaghan, Deputy Director, AHF’s Food for Health program

About Food for Health:

AHF started Food for Health in 2021 in response to rising food insecurity among families, veterans, and those in need, and since then, it has grown to serve more than 20,000 people monthly in Southern California. Food for Health provided more than 75,000 hot meals to wildfire evacuees and first responders in both Pasadena and the Pacific Palisades in January and February, and then, partnering with Fairoaks Burger, hosted a weekly free farmers’ market in Altadena from March through August to continue serving the Altadena community. By the end of 2025, AHF’s Food for Health program will have served over half a million people across the country.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization, provides cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 2.8 million individuals across 50 countries, including the U.S. and in Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, visit us online at AIDShealth.org, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Contacts

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Ged Kenslea, Senior Director, AHF Communications

(323) 791-5526

ged.kenslea@ahf.org

Carlos Marroquin, National Director, AHF Food for Health Programs

(323) 592-4663

carlos.marroquin@foodforhealthAHF.org