Manhattan Beach's Single Mom Project Distributes $60K to Mothers in Need
May 10, 2025 09:35AM ● By Jeanne Fratello
(Single Mom Project co-founder Janet Jones, center, in teal, with mothers from the Richstone Family Center.)
The Manhattan Beach-based Single Mom Project held its 5th annual event to honor single moms, giving gifts of $1,000 each to its highest-ever total of 60 mothers in need.
The
Single Mom Project aims to help low-income, hardworking mothers who are served by the Richstone Family Center to
get on steadier financial footing. The Richstone Family Center, located in Hawthorne, provides crucial services such as counseling and after school programs to
families impacted by domestic abuse.
The event included a book giveaway of more than 150 books, the performance by a Grammy-nominated artist, and Mira Costa High School student volunteers who kept the children of the honorees amused through the event.
Recipients use the $1,000 to pay rent, cover overdue bills, buy groceries, purchase beds for their children, repair cars, replace broken kitchen appliances, and cover immediate needs for which they do not have the resources.
This year, for the first time, the Single Mom Project now has an emergency fund of $10,000 to handle urgent needs in the coming year.
The
Single Mom Project welcomes support from family foundations,
individuals and companies that aim to help improve the lives of local
low-income families. Donations can be made to the Single Mom Project here.
Single Mom Project Began in 2020
Jones, who raised two boys as a single mother in Manhattan Beach, created the Single Mom Project in
2020 with her (now grown) sons Evan and Carter. Prior to founding the Single Mom Project, the Jones family had coordinated a
variety of events for Richstone, from a Back-to-School Barbecue to Free
Haircut Days to Free Family Portrait Days, so the center was a natural partner for their efforts.
The Single Mom Project's grant-giving efforts began in December 2020, when Jones and her sons gave away a total of $5,500 to 11
single moms. Inspired by the success of that first event, on Mother's Day 2021, the group gave a total of $6,500 to 13
local single mothers. As the group's momentum grew, the grants kept on coming: On Thanksgiving 2021, the group granted granted 17 local single mothers $500 each; in 2022, the group hosted a "Confidence Day" for moms that included massages and other spa treatments, and later held a different celebration in which they gave out $500 grants to 17 mothers.
In 2023, the Single Mom Project partnered with Leadership Manhattan Beach to transform the food pantry at the Richstone Center.
2024's Mother's Day event saw the Single Mom Project's grants rise to 50 recipients.
Donations Keep Families Intact
Jones
had gone through her own struggles as a single mother, and was grateful
to receive support from her Tree Section neighbors and community
members when her boys were young.
(Jones is known in the
neighborhood for her prolific lemon tree, which she bought with her boys
one year on Mother's Day as part of a lesson on how they were going to
"make lemonade out of lemons." In 2020, she invited a local Cub Scout
troop to pick the lemons for a food donation project.)
A pivotal moment in Jones' life came a few
years ago when a good friend sent her a Mother’s Day card and tucked a
$5,000 check inside.
"He was dying of cancer and wrote that he wanted my
sons and me to thrive," said Jones. "He
died shortly thereafter, but we’re now paying Matt’s gesture forward."
The mothers from the Richstone Center have expressed to Jones how meaningful the grants are in their lives.
For example, Jones learned that one of the previous
grant recipients had received permission to use her $500 grant to buy her
child a single bed. The client said that Child Protective Services had said
they would take her child away if she could not provide a bed.
"The
Single Family Project helped keep that family intact," said Jones. "Even
though $500 may not seem like a lot to some of us in the Beach Cities,
that amount can literally keep a family together."
