Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara join Billie Eilish to hand out plant-based burgers to homeless youth

They are celebrities famous for their veganism.

And this week, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Billie Eilish helped distribute plant-based burgers to homeless youth in Los Angeles.

The trio joined Billie’s mom Maggie Baird and dad Patrick O’Connell at My Friend’s Place in Hollywood to mark the one-year anniversary of Baird’s Support + Feed initiative.

In a statement to Variety, Mara and Phoenix explained their support for the nonprofit, saying: ‘At a time when most people were worried about their own health and security, Maggie dreamed up and implemented a plan to get nourishing food to people who needed it most.’ 

For her part, Baird, 62, said: ‘It’s incredible to believe that what we started as a COVID crisis response to help people experiencing food insecurity by purchasing meals from small plant-based restaurants, has grown to be a real movement.’

Baird added: ‘What we imagined as a few months worth of effort became a year of full-time volunteering for so many and now, as we have seen the impact that receiving this nourishing, delicious food has had for people and also knowing that every plant-based meal we serve has a positive impact on climate change, we are more committed than ever.’  

Billie grew up as a vegetarian and in 2014, the singer decided to go a step further and became a vegan.

‘Becoming vegan wasn’t like a huge deal for me because meat was never a thing in my life. It wasn’t like I missed meat– wasn’t like I had something to miss,’ the Grammy winner has said.

Meanwhile, Phoenix, who shares a son River with Mara, has been a vegan since the age of three.

Last year at the Academy Awards, Phoenix, 46, used his Oscar win for Joker to give a lengthy pro-animal rights speech in which he slammed the dairy industry.