Peoples' Self-Help Housing

The Mission of Peoples' Self-Help Housing is to provide affordable housing and programs leading to self-sufficiency for low-income families, seniors, and other special needs groups on California's Central Coast.

Taste of Hope Celebrity Co-Chair, Rona Barrett

Rona Barrett is an American broadcaster, gossip columnist, and businesswoman. She currently runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez. The Foundation addresses the critical challenges faced by low-income seniors and assists other non profits that help in the housing, feeding, and caring for elderly people in need. A portion of the profits of the Rona Barrett Lavender Company benefit the foundation.

Barrett became a gossip columnist for the Bell-McClure newspaper syndicate in 1957. In 1966, she began broadcasting Hollywood gossip on the Los Angeles television station KABC-TV. She appeared on TV regularly, appearing on ABC's five owned and operated stations around the country. She developed the first in-depth personal TV specials about the celebrities of motion pictures, television, music, sports and politics, and had a series of magazines on the entertainment industry that were top-rated at newsstands, including Rona Barrett's Hollywood, published by Laufer. As such she paved the way for Barbara Walters and many entertainment reporters.

Barrett began appearing on Good Morning America in 1975. She was signed in 1980 to co-host NBC's Tomorrow with Tom Snyder. In 1986, she bought a ranch in Santa Ynez and began commuting back and forth to Los Angeles. In 1991, she retired full time to her ranch, where she began planting fields of lavender. Her company is as a producer of lavender bath, beauty, food and aromatherapy products. The company follows a model of using celebrity-branded consumer goods to generate funds and raise awareness of a non-profit cause.