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Founder
In 1985 in San Francisco, Ruth Brinker, a retired grandmother, watched a dear friend die of AIDS. She realized that for many people with HIV/AIDS, malnutrition was causing death as much as the illness itself. At that time, no social service agency was providing meals to those too weak from AIDS or too impoverished to feed themselves. Using her experience as a manager with another food program, Ruth enlisted the help of her friends, secured a basement kitchen at a local church and began to serve meals to seven clients, Project Open Hand was born.As more people heard about Ruth's "project" more requests started coming in for home-delivered meals and Ruth put out a call for volunteers. Project Open Hand has not stopped growing since. We moved to a kitchen on 17th street and assumed responsibility for a food bank. In 1989, we started serving people with AIDS in Alameda County. In 1997, Project Open Hand moved to its current home on 730 Polk Street. Clients can now receive hot nutritious meals, groceries and nutrition education all under one roof. In 1998, Project Open Hand furthered its reach and began serving congregate lunches to seniors at various sites throughout San Francisco.
At the beginning of 2000, Project Open Hand expanded its services to provide Meals with Love to people who are homebound and critically ill. Ruth's original vision of "nutrition with compassion" is being shared with other people in need. People who have limited social services available to them and are in need of the comfort Project Open Hand's meals provide.
