Weelicious founder joins KIND Snacks CEO-founded organization to help LA wildfire victims
The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles have left families homeless as frontline workers and emergency responders battle the blaze. The Frontline Impact Project, launched by the founder of KIND Snacks after the COVID-19 pandemic to supply first responders, is now helping frontline workers in LA get what they need. Weelicious founder Catherine McCord is one of the organization’s partners. She also lives near the Pasadena area that was affected by the fires.
“I’ve really been on the ground myself working with a lot of brands. The brands have been incredible in their efforts to simply deliver food and other products to families,” McCord told Fox News. “Right now, most of the families are displaced, so I think we’re trying to take care of our frontline workers who are still working hard to make sure the fires are contained, and then slowly but surely we’re getting to the families.”
Firefighters watch as the Palisades Fire, one of several simultaneous wildfires burning through Los Angeles County, burns in Mandeville Canyon, a Los Angeles neighborhood, on January 12, 2025.
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McCord also spoke about her personal connection to the people who were displaced by forest firessharing that her son’s school has “40 families who have lost their homes in fires or [were] displaced.”
Although she and her family were not displaced by the fire, many in their community were. She says the disaster “touches us in many ways.”
“I think the hardest part was watching people who were used to supporting other people, and now they are in a position that is not comfortable and everything is taken away from them overnight and trying to explain to their children, and also trying to just work and get back on their feet, find a new a place to live.”
Jaclyn Senis and Laura Shockley, both displaced by the Palisades fire, embrace after dropping off their children at a new school in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 15, 2025. (REUTERS/David Ryder)
Amid the “layered and complicated” situation, McCord expressed some optimism about the response, saying she’s “seen Los Angeles come together in such an impactful way.”
Along with Weelicious, Blue Lizard Sunscreen, Justin’s Peanut Butter, Kachava All in One Nutrition, Love Corn Snacks, Banza Pasta and Spindrift are working with the Frontline Impact Project to bring their products to the front lines.
Smoke rises from the charred remains of a building on the Pasadena Waldorf School campus, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Altadena, California. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
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Early Thursday morning, at least 25 people were confirmed dead in the disaster, while dozens are still missing. Additionally, Cal Fire it is estimated that more than 12,000 structures were destroyed in the fire and that over 40,600 hectares were burned.
