Since starting out as an entrepreneur voice actor more than a decade ago, one of my top goals has been to use my voice (both literally and figuratively) to be of service and inspiration whenever possible. I’d finally found myself in a place of financial abundance in my own career and wanted to give back in a way that might hopefully have maximum impact in my community. As a person who prioritizes healthy meals for my own family, it just didn’t feel right to not help in some way when there were so many others struggling to feed their own families.
When I heard that a record number of Los Angeles residents have been challenged with food insecurity since the pandemic, I was heartbroken and overwhelmed with feeling hopelessness at not knowing if or how I might be able to offer assistance. I recognized that many locals, both housed and unhoused, use the Food Bank’s services, and people suffering through the plight of homelessness have always held a special place in my heart.
My parents and both sets of grandparents all grew up fairly poor in the South—particularly my mother—who was one of the oldest in a large family and still remembers how much it meant to her and her siblings as children when they received assistance and toys from others during the holidays.
Through her words and actions, my mother strongly instilled in her own children the importance of remembering to be kind and generous to those less than ourselves whenever possible. She’s held a lifelong aspiration to even one day start her own non-profit in the hopes of giving back on a grander scale for as long as I can remember.
Faith and spirituality have also always been a large part of my mother’s life, and my life. We aim to use our lives and works to serve as a blessing to others in our community by striving to be “good stewards” to both friends and strangers in need. I believe that essentially, we are all connected and that by helping others, we ultimately also help ourselves.
What I love about the LA food bank is how they’re actively involved with a multitude of food suppliers and restaurants and they prioritize feeding people healthy, nutritious food (versus cheap empty calories). Since we all need to eat to survive, I decided the L.A. Food Bank was an excellent organization to support.
I hope that my donation might be able to serve as inspiration in encouraging more people in the future to share the abundance in their own lives, as generosity has always been a gift that inevitably provides even greater rewards for us all in the end. 🙂
About Mara Junot
Mara Junot is a renowned Los Angeles-based voiceover specialist with a 3-dimensional voice that resonates for Fortune 500 companies around the globe. From feature films to AAA video games, animation to promos, Mara’s colorful vocal versatility dubbed her as a voiceover “Shapeshifter” who has been regularly featured by popular household brands worldwide for over a decade, including: Call of Duty, Destiny 2, Genshin Impact, Fortnite, Mortal Kombat 11, League of Legends, DreamWorks, NBCUniversal, ESPN, E!, History Channel, Lifetime, WEtv, The Walking Dead (Telltale Games), World of WarCraft, The Outer Worlds and many, many more.