A handful of celebrities will be bagging groceries and whipping
up free sample foods at the new Westwood Whole Foods Market this
Wednesday.
The celebrities are participating in a charity event which will
send 5 percent of Wednesday’s sales to UCLA’s Mattel
Children’s Hospital.
“Whole Foods does Five Percent Days quite often,”
said Elizabeth Carovillano, marketing director for the Southern
Pacific Region. “Especially when we open a new store because
it’s a way for us to support the community.”
Beginning at 9 a.m., celebrity grocery baggers ““ including
The West Wing’s Danica McKellar, The Guardian’s Raphael
Sbarge, international model Phoebe Price, and Peter Reckell from
The Days of Our Lives ““ will begin their shifts.
From 5 to 7 p.m., celebrity chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan
Feniger, owners of Border Grill in Santa Monica, Pasadena, and Las
Vegas will be presenting samples of halibut skewers with jalapeno
lime marinade, pork tenderloin with tomatillo relish, and skirt
steak skewers with gaucho marinade.
According to Carovillano, representatives from the new Whole
Foods store will speak to neighboring businesses in order to
determine what most impacts the community.
“We kept hearing about the Mattel Children’s
Hospital and it kept coming to us as a really good cause,”
she said.
The UCLA Children’s Hospital provides an extensive range
of pediatric services for children in Southern California and
around the world.
Staffed by physicians from the Department of Pediatrics of the
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the hospital offers
treatment and conducts research in HIV infection, kidney diseases,
diabetes, childhood cancer and cystic fibrosis.
The children’s hospital was one of the first four centers
in the country to carry out pediatric bone marrow transplants, and
currently houses leading programs in bone marrow, heart, liver and
kidney transplants.
The hospital gained nationwide recognition earlier this year
when Guatemalan twins Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus Quiej
Alvarez, who were formerly conjoined at the head, stayed there
after a 30-hour procedure to separate them.
UCLA took on the $2 million cost for the surgery and
hospitalization of the twins, and received over $450,000 in private
donations.
The Whole Foods Five Percent Days are considerably smaller, with
total donations ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, according to
Caravillano.
“(The money) will go for the highest priority needs:
patient care, the Child Life program, help with faculty and
students,” said Elizabeth Stacy, director of development for
the hospital.
Wednesday’s event is part of Whole Food’s Community
Centered Shopping program.
“It’s really our customers supporting community
causes that they believe in by deciding to shop that day,”
Carovillano said.
According to Carovillano, Five Percent Days have been a Whole
Foods tradition for at least the past 12 years.
“We try to reflect the needs of the community,” she
said. “With UCLA being right there, there will be a lot of
connections we make for the university.”
Community groups can apply to receive donations for future Five
Percent Days.
Celebrities will be at Whole Foods starting at 9 a.m. Celebrity
chefs will be handing out food samples from 5 to 7 p.m.