Amy Laboube

Expertise

Store Team Leader at Whole Foods Market: MALIBU

Amy La Boube is the Store Team Leader at the Whole Foods Market in Malibu – she has worked for Whole Foods for seventeen years and is keenly aware of the need for everyone to have nutrition information and available healthy food. “I’ve been a vegan for fourteen years and I’m very aware of the role of food and its importance in everyone’s lives,” Amy said.  Like many people, Amy’s consciousness about eating disorders only developed in recent years. When she was younger, Amy did not realize how challenging eating disorders can be and how so many people silently suffer with them. “I had a good friend in high school who threw up so quietly that we called it the ‘silent upchuck’,” Amy said. “It was only years later that I became aware that my friend was actually bulimic. Years ago, she sought treatment, which has helped her immensely.”

That’s not an uncommon scenario, Amy notes, “It’s so shocking that one can be so close to someone and not know that they’re struggling with an eating disorder.” Addressing that reality is one of The Donut Shop’s central goals and one of the reasons why Amy is a Donut Ambassador and a huge supporter of the play.

“The DONUT SHOP spurs a thought-provoking and insightful exchange amongst its curiously connected characters,” Amy says. “It sheds light on the threads and make up of the fabric of what motivates our approach towards, and perceptions of, others.  It ultimately causes us to acknowledge that perhaps we are all more alike than we think. In short, there is a lot to chew on in THE DONUT SHOP.”

Amy has big aspirations for meaningful, effective collaboration between THE DONUT SHOP and WHOLE FOODS. “Lenise, The Donut Shop producer, and I look forward to partnering to offer events supporting the play with interactive experiences around food wellness. Lenise shared with me the positive results she has witnessed, by walking those who are struggling with eating disorders around Whole Foods, as part of their treatment. This is a simple effective tool that we would be proud to support. These tours facilitate those struggling to become more comfortable around food and build greater awareness about food differences, resulting in less anxiety and more knowledge to empower better decisions around food,” Amy said. “We also see how effective and fun something like a ‘Donut Bake-Off’ could be for the community, having our WHOLE FOODS chefs blend creativity, healing, and awareness for a powerful movement such as
The Donut Shop… I can envision customers taste-testing and voting on their favorite donut… It would be amazing for our chefs to create a vegan donut in honor of the play!” 

Amy’s view is that THE DONUT SHOP will launch narratives that lead to understanding and healing. “THE DONUT SHOP stirs a thoughtful conversation: the play wrestles a common demon from different viewpoints and helps people address their anxieties using characters challenged with eating disorders in a safe space.”