mbg's New Documentary Is All About How To Fight Homelessness & Hunger
Day in and day out, LaRayia Gaston hand-delivers wellness to the dejected and disempowered. Could there be anyone more deserving of mindbodygreen's first documentary on our brand-new Social Good platform?
For years, Gaston has brought healthy food, yoga, and self-care to the homeless on Skid Row. In this short film, we join Gaston and her Lunch on Me team as they use love to redirect pain on the streets of New York and Los Angeles.
Along the way, we hear from the men and women who credit Gaston with renewing their worldview, merely by holding space and treating them with respect. Their words are a reminder that as a society we have to do better. We have to support people like Gaston who are saving the 40 percent of food that is wasted in America and bringing it to the 40 million who go hungry. We have to acknowledge that the homeless population is not one to fear but one to love, appreciate, and learn from.
LaRayia has had our hearts since she spoke at last year's revitalize event, and we know that by the end of these 13 minutes, she'll have yours too.
So grab the tissues, and grab your wallet. Ten dollars a month is all it takes to help Lunch on Me give love beyond reason. For Gaston's next project, she's raising funds to open a coffee bar and yoga staffed by the homeless—and every dollar will help her get there.
As Gaston says in the film, "I don't look at the problem as a whole. I look at how I'm contributing to the solution." If we all do a little something to contribute, the solutions will surely follow.
Emma Loewe is the Sustainability and Health Director at mindbodygreen and the author of Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us. She is also the co-author of The Spirit Almanac: A Modern Guide To Ancient Self Care, which she wrote alongside Lindsay Kellner.
Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She's spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.