LaRayia Gaston On Healing Homelessness With Love Beyond Reason

For activist and artist LaRayia Gaston, wellness at its core is about community, love, and compassion—especially for those marginalized in our society. As the founder of the Los Angeles–based organization Lunch on Me, Gaston champions a mission of love without reason to help feed the city's enormous homeless population with organic meals. Lunch on Me provides more than fresh food; its volunteers give homeless individuals an even scarcer resource: love. Gaston takes the healing modalities that have served her, like crystals and Reiki, and gives them out alongside hot meals. She makes it a point to remember her participants' birthdays and ask about their health. As she sees it, her organization's overall mission is not just to end hunger but to enrich the mind, body, and spirit.