Asher Landau

Director of Development and Community Engagement

Asher Landau is Director of Development and Community Engagement for Hollywood Food Coalition. He helps guide HoFoCo’s strategy for sustainable growth to meet challenges related to food insecurity, homelessness, and resource inequality. He builds and maintains relationships with a variety of stakeholders, including board members, philanthropic individuals, elected officials, government agencies, foundations, fellow nonprofits and business leaders. Previously, he served as Vice President for HoFoCo’s board of directors and an Associate Director of Development at UCLA.

Kristin Feuer

Director of Operations

Kristin is the Director of Operations for Hollywood Food Coalition, overseeing the Community Exchange and the Community Dinner programs. Born and raised in Los Angeles (and a classic ’80s Valley girl), Kristin is delighted to be able to help feed the community she loves. She attended Le Cordon Bleu and worked for many years as a pastry chef, including at Providence, The Tasting Kitchen, and Playa Provisions. She likes to say she learned how to bake by inverse example from her mother, who tended to forget to add little ingredients like flour. She was most recently Director of Operations for Rustic Canyon Family of Restaurants, where her favorite job was coming up with the ice cream flavors for Sweet Rose Creamery. Kristin also has experience in construction project management and building permitting. She makes a mean banana cream pie.

Linda Pianigiani

Associate Director of Development and Communications

Linda Pianigiani

Linda Pianigiani is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer as well as an organ builder and woodworker. She hails from Italy, and after more than a decade in film development and production, working on all kinds of films, from blockbusters to Emmy Award-nominated documentaries, she transitioned to managing programs and partnerships in the nonprofit sector. Her introduction to the Hollywood Food Coalition started back in 2015, when she began as a volunteer on the line and eventually moved to the kitchen shifts, putting her love for food to work for a great cause. She joined the board of directors in 2017 and, in 2022, stepped down to enthusiastically join HoFoCo’s staff. As Associate Director of Development and Communications, Linda helps build out the organization’s fundraising strategies, manages and executes events and develops corporate engagement strategy. She also creates and implements marketing, content, and external communication strategies.

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Erin Lovelace

Community Dinner
Manager

Erin Lovelace

Erin Lovelace works as the Community Dinner Manager at Hollywood Food Coalition. Erin’s job works directly with staff, volunteers, and over 100 nightly guests the kitchen serves at the coalition’s community dinner. During the pandemic, Erin stumbled into the coalition as a temporary dishwasher and never left.

Collin Leaver

Head Chef

Collin Leaver serves as the Head Chef for Hollywood Food Coalition (HoFoCo). Collin has had over 15 years of experience working in senior management positions in the culinary arts industry both in hotels and restaurants. In his capacity as Head Chef for HoFoCo, he bridges his
knowledge of food and his dedication to serve his community to ensure that HoFoCo meets its standards to provide both healthy and nutritious meals for food-insecure and low-income persons.
Prior to joining HoFoCo, Collin worked as the Chef de Cuisine for L’Auberge Del Mar in San Diego and a Corporate Chef overseeing eight restaurant locations throughout Los Angeles. Before moving to Southern California, he was the Chef de Cuisine for A16 Restaurant in San
Francisco, which received several James Beard awards and nominations and was featured in Food and Wine Magazine. Collin also spent time working with Chef Matthew Accarino at SPQR; a restaurant that was awarded its first Michelin Star during Collin’s time there. Collin was born in Los Angeles and grew up in San Diego. He attended college in New York before moving back to California to pursue his career as a Chef.

Mary Venderley

Community Wellness
Program Manager

Mary was born in Venezuela and raised in Argentina, Dubai, and, ultimately, Illinois, where she attended high school and college. After graduating with a degree in film from Columbia College Chicago, Mary moved to Los Angeles, where she’s worked in casting for the past nine years. During the early days of the pandemic, Mary began volunteering at SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition and found she had a passion and knack for building and maintaining relationships with her unhoused neighbors. Mary joined HoFoCo as a peer navigator, providing on-site navigation for guests and connecting them with vital services. In her current role, Mary helps HoFoCo continue to manage its Wellness partnerships with other nonprofits and develop new partnerships, provide on-site and off-site service navigation to Community Dinner guests, help coordinate Wellness item distributions, and refine  Wellness data and referral systems, among other responsibilities. Mary’s excited to work with HoFoCo guests and thrilled to be a full-time member of the team.  

Sherry Bonanno

Special Projects Advisor

Sherry Bonanno

Sherry began volunteering with the Coalition over 20 years ago. Over this time, Sherry has worn nearly every hat possible with HoFoCo, from cooking meals to taking clients to doctor appointments to serving multiple terms as Board President.  Sherry brings to HoFoCo a profound concern for the welfare of those struggling, along with the tools needed to help make improvements in their lives.

Sherry has always believed that the strength of HoFoCo lies in its ability to function as a coalition, where everyone feels welcome and accepted. She has a BS and MA in Occupational Therapy from USC and over 40 years of experience working with people struggling with significant life changes due to physical and mental health challenges.  As HoFoCo’s first-ever salaried Executive Director, she envisioned HoFoCo creating a community hub where service providers can work together efficiently and effectively to help people in crisis access services and support for their immediate needs as well as for their personal growth. She is excited to continue contributing to HoFoCo as its Special Projects Advisor.

Patrick Hudnut

Project Manager and Organization Administrator

Patrick Hudnut

Patrick is the Project Manager & Organization Administrator at HoFoCo. As Project Manager, Patrick leads a special soon-to-be-announced project. As Organization Administrator, Patrick does most of the HR work for the organization, along with completing other administrative duties. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Patrick first started volunteering with HoFoCo when he was 9 years old and joined the staff in 2020.  

Roland Montgomery

Finance Coordinator

Roland is the Finance Coordinator for the Hollywood Food Coalition. As the Finance Coordinator, Roland works to create smart administrative systems and coordinates with all HoFoCo departments to ensure the bills are paid on time. He grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Carleton College with a degree in Political Science. Since graduating, he has worked at a literary magazine, and as a high school math tutor. In his free time, he enjoys playing chess, tennis, and rock climbing.

Daniel Friedberg

Sous Chef

Daniel grew up in Columbus, Ohio. His love for swimming and scuba diving led him to a career in commercial diving. He’s dived all over the US, Mexico, and Panama working on various projects for oil companies and ship repairs. Daniel‘s other passion, cooking, has taken him down a new path, in the last 8 years he’s been cooking professionally in big chains and smaller independent restaurants in LA. “I love cooking because I feel like it’s a great gesture to show people that you care.”

Marike Gangon-Lapare

Community Dinner
Support

Marike Gangon Lapare

Marike started volunteering at the Hollywood Food Coalition in August 2020 and recently started working as a kitchen assistant, helping with meal preparation and nightly services. Marike is currently studying sports nutrition at UCLA extension and used to be a flight attendant based in Montreal, Canada.

Julio Lane

Community Dinner
Kitchen Support

Dougald Park

Community Dinner
Weekend Driver & Kitchen Support

Dougald was born, raised, and educated in Oregon.  He has lived and worked throughout the west, spending years in San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis, and Seattle, before landing in Los Angeles 25 years ago. He is so happy to be part of Hollywood Food Coalition, where he started as a volunteer with his friends. Dougald lives in Glassell Park with his daughter, Ruby.

Casey Arner

Community Dinner
Kitchen Support

Casey attended George Mason University with a focus in Finance. After graduation, he worked in Finance for 6 years. Casey started volunteering at the coalition with friends and felt instantly connected. So far he loves the comradery between staff and volunteers and getting to serve alongside the “best kind of people”. Casey is from Pennsylvania and he is a Philadelphia Eagles fan. He enjoys the outdoors, exploring national parks, and traveling. So far Iceland is his favorite destination, with Spain being a very close second. ">

Jill Klein

Volunteer Coordinator | Community Dinner

Jill Klein

As HoFoCo’s Volunteer Coordinator, Jill focuses on volunteer coordination for the Community Dinner and office management, including reminding volunteers that it’s their day to help, thanking donors for their generous donations, picking up mail, maintaining stats (meals, clients, donations, etc.), and coordinating projects. Jill began with HoFoCo as a Food Runner and has been with the organization ever since. With a background in theater and the performing arts, copy editing, teaching and tutoring, Jill has done it all – you name it, she’s done it. She could also be found, before the pandemic, leading visits at the Getty Villa as an Arts Education Docent.

Krys Grant-Ray

Community Exchange
Community & Recipient Specialist

Krys Grant Ray

Krys Grant-Ray relocated from New York, leaving the medical field shortly after making a decision to focus her efforts on building strong community ties. She was eager to build a bridge between organizations, to meet different organizational goals and participants’ needs. By 2014, Krys found herself working in the space of community engagement and food security. In 2019, Krys shifted her efforts from solely food-focused engagement to include volunteers.

Krys recently joined the Hollywood Food Coalition team in a role of Community Exchange Program Coordinator.  As a New York native, Krys brings her ability to hustle, catch the vision, and connect others to it in an authentic way. With over a decade of experience, she continues to strive to meet the food needs of communities.

Miles Daniels

Community Exchange Supervisor

Miles Daniels graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2013 with a degree in History. After moving to Los Angeles later that same year, he worked in the retail industry before entering the non-profit workforce with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in 2020. After two years of Market Research and Data Analysis, he jumped at the opportunity to join the team at Hollywood Food Coalition in June 2022. As Community Exchange Program Supervisor, Miles balances growing and managing his team and learning as much as possible about the food recovery space. Having lived in the Hollywood area for the last ten years, Miles has seen firsthand the incredible work Hollywood Food Coalition has done and continues to do day after day. He’s excited to be a HoFoCo team member and to continue helping those in need.

Phil Meister

Community Exchange Food Sharing Lead

Phil was born in Houston and grew up in Detroit. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he moved to Chicago and spent nearly a decade performing, writing and directing theater. He then moved to New York, where he worked as a post-production producer at an animation studio. His work in commercial post-production brought him to Los Angeles, which easily ranks in the Top 5 places he’s lived. In 2021, he pivoted to the nonprofit world and joined HoFoCo to make nightly dinners for the unhoused community. In 2022 he joined HoFoCo’s Exchange program as Food Sharing Coordinator. In his Food Sharing Lead role, Phil handles the daily distribution of rescued food to dozens of charity organizations throughout LA and manages the California Climate Action Corps fellows. He’s thrilled to be part of the HoFoCo team. It’s a true joy to spend each day getting food to those who need it most, alongside a crew of inspiring coworkers and volunteers.

Jonnie Tibbetts

Community Exchange Food Rescue Coordinator

Born and raised in the Valley, Jonnie went to art school in Oakland, CA where they ended up being more interested in the social practice and activism side of art making. Being most moved by learning of the local history around the Black Panther Party and their historic free breakfast program, Jonnie became very involved in mutual aid work when they moved back home to LA before the pandemic, most often passing out meals provided by Hollywood Food Coalition to the unhoused community of the West Valley. Coming from a bakery and professional cake decorating background, Jonnie switched their focus to food recovery and housing advocacy and has since managed numerous on-site and pop-up food pantry locations throughout LA as well as worked as a direct caseworker. Jonnie is excited to be the Food Rescue Coordinator at Hollywood Food Coalition!

Jeff Kaley

Community Exchange
Transportation & Warehouse Support

Jeff Kaley

A native of Detroit, graduate of the Los Angeles Film School, and huge baseball fan, Jeff joined HoFoCo’s Community Exchange in the summer of 2021, where he is excited to work with wonderful people on one common goal: serving the community! Before HoFoCo, Jeff worked for the LA Dodgers and on various films and TV shows. Jeff is very proud of his two kids, Danielle (18) and Travis (6). When not working, you can find Jeff hanging out with his son at the park, catching a move, going to a baseball game, enjoying college football (GO BLUE!), catching a Morrissey show, or taking a nap! 

Nick Murray

Community Exchange
Transportation & Warehouse Support

Nick Murray

Nick has been working with HoFoCo since 2018 and helps plan the routes to the donors and vendors all over Los Angeles County, as well as physically transporting/loading in and out thousands of pounds of food everyday.

After delivering them for redistribution to the HoFoCo kitchen and other organizations, he works within the Exchange program, helping with inventory, as well as communicating to volunteers and organizing the kitchen throughout the day.

Nick is originally from Minneapolis, MN and is also a working recording/touring musician.

Joey Aronhalt

Community Exchange
Warehouse Support

Crisco Goff

Courtesy Patrol