The Power of Photography to Fund 6,680 Meals

Julie and Janette – Photo by Tony Gale

If you’ve been following God’s Love  over the last year, chances are you’ve noticed that we’ve had some pretty wonderful sales held to help us fund meals. Two spectacularly successful photography+ sales have been the brainchild of Janette Beckman & Julie Grahame. Together they have raised $66,800, funding a staggering 6,680 meals for our clients living with serious illness in New York.

We sat down with Jenette and Julie to hear a bit about their process and inspiration.

Janette has been involved with God’s Love We Deliver since 2015 when she came in to volunteer both in the kitchen and delivering meals on the recommendation of her good friend Jon Gilman. She loved our work so much that she brought her friend the curator and founder of aCurator, Julie Grahame, into the God’s Love fold. Julie and Janette met when Julie’s agency represented Janette’s photography. When the coronavirus pandemic transformed life in New York they wanted to find a way to support their city. That’s when they decided to benefit God’s Love with an online aCurator sale. Janette said, “We wanted to do something local. We wanted to do something where we knew the money’s actually properly spent.”

Ever humble, Julie describes them as “two British women that became foreign friends here… [who] didn’t know anything about fundraising.” Well, the only explanation must be that they’re naturals.

These two had no trouble attracting an enviable list of talent for their sales. In fact, they said they had artists writing to them asking to donate artwork. No doubt, this is because they are good friends with some of the photography worlds most esteemed portraitists. The scope of their community is apparent in the diversity and quality of the work they put forward. And the world took notice! Their first music sale was featured on Fox5! Janette pitched this story to the network who no doubt, they were grateful to have a wonderful story of hope about artists working together to support their neighbors at the height of the pandemic.

Did you miss the opportunity to buy a photo from the first two sales? Fret not! Julie and Janette are already planning the next one!

As the world starts opening up they can’t wait to go to museums and gallery shows, but most of all, they can’t way to sit on each other’s couches and drink a beer together.

Janette and Julie, we hope you take some time to celebrate your success before jumping right into working on another sale!