The Telephone Angels Program was started by The Everest Foundation a little over a year ago (in April 2020) is starting to get the recognition it deserves as a wildly successful program connecting critically ill individuals with volunteers hoping to uplift those that are feeling lonely.
An outreach component of the Project Angel Food initiative, the Telephone Angels Program, was designed to help nourish the soul of individuals that were feeling untethered and unconnected from the world around them while fighting back against serious illness.
The program has been helping to uplift the spirits of people that were already feeling disconnected and lonely before the pandemic hit, but now feel even more adrift than ever before.
Celebrating a Year of Helpful Connections
At the very core, the Telephone Angels Program has always been about feeding the soul of critically ill people living throughout the Los Angeles area – including many of the same people being served by the Project Angel Food initiative.
Dr. Michael Everest and The Everest Foundation realized through conversations with Project Angel Food that people had their nutrition and medical needs met, but they were feeling particularly disconnected, alone, and increasingly separated from the world around them.
Dr. Michael Everest started this new communication outreach program in April 2020 to connect volunteers to these critically ill individuals, opening up new lines of communication, building new relationships, and helping to bring a little bit of joy back into the lives of people that were feeling pretty down.
Volunteers spend around 10 minutes (but sometimes more) on the phone with these critically ill individuals, checking in on them, seeing how their day is going, and swapping stories about their lives.
A lot of great friendships have been built over these phone lines. While it’s impossible to know exactly what kind of impact of this initiative has had on the lives of thousands of critically ill individuals in Los Angeles, the chances are pretty good that it’s made a world of difference for people that were previously feeling left behind and alone.
About The Everest Foundation
Founded by Dr. Michael Everest and shared by his wife Agata Everest, The Everest Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based out of Los Angeles.
With a global reach, the program provides funding, networking, and other opportunities dedicated to the advancement of cutting-edge medical technology, research, and education.
Always on the lookout for new ways to contribute positively to the local community in Los Angeles, as well as opportunities to better serve humanity nationwide (and globally, too), The Telephone Angels Program is a relatively new initiative from this organization – but it’s one that has already garnered a lot of attention and a lot of praise.
Building off of the network and infrastructure the Project Angel Food organization has been building since 1989, Telephone Angels focuses on feeding the social side of people’s lives, whereas Project Angel Food focuses on providing medically targeted meals to over 2300 people living with critical (often life-threatening) diseases throughout the LA area.