The Thoughtful Way Jennifer Garner Gave Back To An L.A. Charity
In addition to being a Golden Globe-winning actress and a spokesperson for Neutrogena and Capital One — oh, and a co-founder of organic food company Once Upon a Farm — Jennifer Garner also cooks. Garner's "#Pretendcookingshow" is a fan favorite series on her Instagram feed (and it even recently got the seal of approval from none other than KitchenAid).
Normally on the show, you'll find Garner in her home kitchen, whipping up all kinds of tasty dishes — everything from empanadas and chocolate bread to maple butter and beef bourguignon. But a recent Instagram post found the actress putting her culinary skills to a different kind of use: Assembling packed lunches for a local food bank. In the heartwarming video posted this week, Garner assembles what looks like nearly two dozen PB&J lunches (in hand-decorated paper bags, no less), to be donated to Los Angeles-based charity/activist group hang.out.do.good (H.O.D.G. for short). Fans were touched by Garner's act of kindness, showering the post with over 729,000 likes and 11,000 comments as of publication.
The charity is connected to a prominent Los Angeles food bank
In addition to her food donation, Jennifer Garner also made sure to share her spotlight with the local charity, mentioning H.O.D.G. (and another LA food bank, Hollywood Food Coalition) in her caption on the Instagram post. "This is my first time making bagged lunches for a local organization, but it won't be my last — thank you for the inspiration, I loved it."
H.O.D.G supports a number of charitable and social justice-related causes, but one of the group's most successful programs is its weekly lunch drive — which you can read about in a Google document linked to in their Instagram bio. Every Sunday, across a network of more than a dozen outposts, the charity collects donations of bagged lunches and delivers them to L.A. food bank Hollywood Food Coalition. According to the Google document, most "Lunch Drive" participants make about 10 lunches, and H.O.D.G. averages, in total, about 6,000 lunch donations per week. Once delivered to the Hollywood Food Coalition, those meals are then distributed to 30 charitable organizations throughout L.A.