Dear Friend of Project Open Hand,

 
    It’s during times of economic stress that all of us feel vulnerable. Whether it’s our jobs, our homes, or our well-being, trying times can make things seem very difficult indeed.

    And for the thousands of men, women and children we serve this is particularly true.

    For many of our clients, the fact that a host of municipal and state agencies are being forced to make drastic budget cuts – such as San Francisco’s Department of Public Heath, which is being asked to reduce its budget by over $100 million – means additional complication to their already difficult lives.

    Because of cuts in staff hours and positions at health clinics and for social workers, our clients are having more difficulty than ever obtaining appointments and referrals to get their health needs met.

    Clients have told me that while their HIV medications continue to be covered, other health issues -- often resulting from long-term side effects of HIV meds or simply living longer with HIV -- including heart disease and liver problems, are not.

    Many of our clients face having to pay out-of-pocket for medications and health services, and simply have less disposable income to purchase necessities, such as food.

    In a declining economy, our clients are some of the most vulnerable. For those who live in subsidized housing, they fear that may be threatened. For those working in temporary or part-time jobs, their positions are frequently the first to be eliminated during cutbacks – and we’ve seen an increase in clients returning to us due to job losses, as the loss of income means that they can’t afford both medication and the nourishing food they need.

    And the situation is hurting seniors as well – with the San Francisco Office on Aging being asked to cut 17% of their general fund budget, half of those cuts will unfortunately come out of senior nutrition programs. Two senior sites may close, and others may cut days, hours and meal components, which could directly impact our Senior Lunch Program. But this issue is not solely about nutrition. Participation in senior meal programs is often the gateway for clients to access other programs provided at the sites. And of course these ‘meals with love’ provide so much help for seniors to get out and socialize in their communities.

    While there is little we can do about the economic downturn and its effects, we can guarantee that our clients will get the nutritious food every day, in the quality and quantity they have come to expect. When everything else is uncertain, they can still count on us for a meal. When they are sick, we will be here for them providing 'meals with love' every day.

    Thank you for making that possible.



Tom Nolan
Executive Director

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    On Wednesday, April 15th, Project Open Hand was proud to host Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. Speaker Pelosi was on hand to be recognized for the immense work she has done over the past 19 years for the fight against HIV/AIDS.

    Co-hosting the event with POH was HAPN, an association of 42 San Francisco HIV/AIDS service providers. Tom Nolan, POH Executive Director, says, “The Speaker clearly enjoyed meeting our staff and volunteers in the kitchen, distribution and at the reception. During the tour she touched on what a vital role non-profit service providers play in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable in our community.”

    After the tour, Speaker Pelosi spoke at a reception in the Grocery Center following remarks from Laura Thomas, San Francisco HIV Services Planning Council Co-Chair, Brett Andrews, Executive Director, Positive Resource Center, Mike Smith, Executive Director, AIDS Emergency Fund, and President of HAPN, and Tom Nolan. Tom says, “Speaker Pelosi spoke fondly of the early days of Project Open Hand and Ruth Brinker – and what it had meant to the community at the time dealing with such a scary and deadly disease. Two years after Ruth founded POH, then-freshman representative Pelosi started her first term in Congress, and knowing the community need, promptly began work with Senator Ted Kennedy on the first Ryan White CARE Act.”

    “In fact, in her first speech before the House, she said "I'm here to fight AIDS." Within 3 years of that speech, three times as many San Franciscans had already died of AIDS than had died in all previous wars combined.”

    “The work that she did in those early days was literally lifesaving,” says Tom. “She received a lot of criticism at the time for standing up for services for people with HIV/AIDS, but recognized the impact that this new disease was having on her home district of San Francisco.”

    And since 1991, the Ryan White CARE money has been invaluable to the community and POH -- San Francisco has received over $400 million in federal funds to support the range of community-based HIV services known nationwide as “the San Francisco model” of HIV care and support. Of that, POH has received almost $25 million in Ryan White funds -- allowing us to feed thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco and Alameda counties.

    It makes a big difference every year, says Jim Illig, Director of Government Relations. “This year alone, Ryan White funding supports 133,010 meals and 22,991 grocery bags for 767 persons living with HIV/AIDS, which is about 25% of the total meals and groceries provided by POH to all HIV clients in the two counties.”

    However, it isn’t an easy task to secure the funding every year, says Jim. “Speaker Pelosi has had to frequently fight to secure adequate funding for the Ryan White programs, and in the last few years, for San Francisco in particular. Because of the previous administration’s misinterpretation of the intent of Congress in reauthorizing the Ryan White Act in 2006, she and the City of San Francisco have had to go above and beyond to ensure that the funding is there.”

    “I know I speak for everyone in attendance that we were thrilled to hear from her that she intends to not only continue to fight for San Francisco’s allocation of funds to support our unique model of community-based care, but that she hopes that, working with President Obama, Congress can finally pass legislation to assure universal health care for all persons with AIDS and other serious illnesses.”


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GOOD FOR THE FORMER INMATES AND FOR OPEN HAND

     Adjacent to the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno lies a 125-acre organic farm that provides employment opportunities to the jail’s former inmates and shares the results of their labors with local food service organizations -- including Project Open Hand.

    Catherine Sneed started the program, then called The Horticulture Project, in 1982. “I had been a counselor at the jail for years. And then one day I was diagnosed with a really terrible disease that was supposed to kill me. But it didn’t,” she says. The experience caused her to want something more from her work, preferably something outside. She approached Sheriff Michael Hennessey with a plan for the dormant jail-owned property, which had been a working farm up until the 1920s.”

    “He supported my idea of taking prisoners out in the field to work on the farm,” she says. The inmates who participated benefited personally, but it became clear that the program could do more. In 1992 The Garden Project was born, offering paid work experience to former inmates.

    “Many of the prisoners I worked with were in for assault charges. A lot of their victims had been older individuals and gay people. So when we started growing food, I thought if we targeted organizations that helped these groups — and helped the prisoners to see that we were doing it for them — they would see them in a different light,” Catherine explains.”

    She built relationships with local food service charities to receive donations of the broccoli, kale and other vegetables they grew. “It was more than just giving organic vegetables to charities,” she says. “I really felt it was part of the healing people needed to go forward with their lives.”

    Project Open Hand was one of the original groups that received donations back in the 1980s. And, this past January, the connection was renewed when Director of Operations Dan Schuman and Catherine Sneed were seated next to each other at a task force meeting put together by Mayor Gavin Newsom to harness local food resources for public services.

    Dan reports, “We – the San Francisco Unified School District, food providers, and community-based organizations – were asking how to best get the food from the growers to the people we serve. And there was Catherine saying, ‘I’m growing it. I’ve got it. How do I get it to people?’ So, during a coffee break, I handed her my card.”

    Since that fortuitous meeting, POH has received regular weekly deliveries of beautiful leafy greens and vegetables -- often just picked that morning -- that we’ve passed on directly to grocery center clients and used in our prepared meals. In return for the bounty, we’ve diverted a small portion of our purchasing funds to TGP to help with seed, fertilizer, and supplies.

    This summer’s harvest will include more kale, collards, and broccoli, as well as Yukon Gold potatoes, carrots, chives, scallions, beets, garlic, leeks, lettuce, spinach, squashes, and possibly even fava beans.

    Says Catherine, “Growing food, and learning agriculture and gardening, it’s a way of turning people around. We’re teaching these people — who have been to jail but are not ‘lost in the system’ yet — how to work. It motivates them to do something with themselves. Hopefully people all over the country will see that this kind of program is a way to do something for their community and for our environment.”



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CONTRACTORS GO ABOVE AND BEYOND FOR OPEN HAND

    While much of the servicing of our facilities and machinery is handled by our top notch Operations team, there are items and issues that require us to hire outside help. In addition to providing valuable assistance to us at reasonable prices many of these contractors, after getting to know us and what we do, end up donating time, parts and more.

    For example: our elevators. As POH Director of Building Operations Steve Hunter explains, “We have a regular service contract in place which we call upon with frequency. The elevators in this building are heavily used and they require attention on a weekly basis.”

    Recently Steve invited Beverly Fujitani, Senior Account Manager for ThyssenKrupp Elevators, in for lunch and gave her a tour of our facility. “She enjoyed the meal very much and she loved what we are doing,” reports Steve.

    Of her visit, Beverly says, “I was very impressed by your operation. I had never been through the facility before. So when I had the tour with Steve and saw what you guys do I felt great to be involved!”

    Soon thereafter, Beverly called to inform us that her company had been able to save some money on the installation of a new elevator motor, and that they would be passing on the savings to us — cutting the bill for the project in half. “This was especially amazing given the current economic uncertainty,” Steve adds.

    Another contractor who goes above and beyond for Open Hand on a regular basis is Dan Meisenholder, sole proprietor of Dan’s Refrigeration.

    Maintaining our 10,000 square feet of refrigerated space is no small feat,” Steve says. “The challenges of keeping all of these machines of different ages, various manufacturers, and varying conditions running smoothly — Dan has not only saved us from losing great quantities of food on numerous occasions, he has also donated a considerable amount of time and materials during his service visits.”

    Even more, Dan has acted as an instructor whenever possible, showing Steve and the crew how they can do some of the maintenance and repairs in the future. “We have learned so much from Dan,” Steve says. “Many contractors are very careful about that. They don’t want to put themselves out of a job!

    “When I’ve asked him about it he’s always said, ‘I do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

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AAA NCNU IS INTIMATELY INVOLVED IN MANY DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF OPEN HAND
    
    For ten years now, AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah (AAA NCNU), has been involved in giving to Project Open Hand – they’ve donated time, money, energy, enthusiasm and turkeys.

    About a week before Thanksgiving, AAA NCNU loads up one of its big yellow flatbed tow trucks with 17 tons of frozen turkeys and delivers them to food service organizations throughout the Bay Area, including POH.

    Roger Hancock, AAA NCNU Community Affairs Manager, says, “The most important purpose the Tow Trucks and Turkeys event serves is helping people in need get a hot turkey dinner. And the program also creates awareness since the truck receives a lot of media coverage which helps inform people of the tremendous need out there, and inspires individuals to help out as well.”

    Of course, it’s not just poultry that AAA sends. Every other week, all year long, AAA provides groups of employees to volunteer in the kitchen to help prepare and pack lunches for distribution. AAA NCNU staffers have also helped at special events, including Dessert First and the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival.

    In 2007 for the first Plate-to-Plate event, AAA’s team was the top fundraiser and took home the signed home plate as the prize. Roger reports, “We take a lot of pride in earning that honor.”

    And every year AAA buys a table at our Hand-to-Hand luncheon in December. But last year, they bought two. Loren Brown, AAA NCNU Corporate Contributions Manager explains, “Out of all the one hundred or so events we sponsor each year, Hand-to-Hand is the number one most popular luncheon -- everyone clamors to go. It’s a very inspirational event, with amazing food, and everyone loves goody bags. So last December there was such a large number of employees interested in going that we ended up buying the additional table so we could send 20 employees instead of 10 as a way for us to recognize volunteers’ contributions.”

    AAA NCNU also recognizes volunteers’ contributions by paying them for it. AAA NCNU employees receive 24 hours of paid time-off per year to volunteer for POH and other organizations, with even more paid time available at managers’ discretion. Employees who are American Red Cross disaster trained are eligible for 80 hours when called to serve.Volunteer Patty Dingle, AAA NCNU Diversity Manager, actively served on POH’s Board of Directors.

    All of that would be more than enough to earn high marks, but AAA continues to go further, despite the current national economic woes.

    Loren says, “At Hand-to-Hand, Tom Nolan shared with me the challenges Open Hand is facing financially due to the economy. Two weeks later, we came to Open Hand’s offices — on Christmas Eve — and presented an additional check for $10,000 in unrestricted funds.”

    “Through volunteering, grant-making and sponsorship, we are really devoted to working with Open Hand. I’ve only been with AAA for a short while, but the Bay Area companies I worked at in the past were also involved with Project Open Hand, so I was very glad to see that AAA NCNU is intimately involved in so many different aspects of your organization.”

    And POH is glad too.




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Why do YOU Support Project Open Hand?

    Recently we surveyed 30,000 POH donors to find out what you’re thinking about us. We do this periodically as part of the dialogue between POH's clients, staff, donors and volunteers that helps us make sure we continue to be responsive to the needs of the community and stay true to our mission of ‘meals with love.’

    Tom Nolan, POH Executive Director, says, “We periodically survey our donors to learn how we’re doing – our supporters are our lifeblood.” This year, POH learned that 58% first heard about POH from a direct mail letter, or from a newspaper, radio, or television story.

    “It says something to us that so many people relate to what we’re doing – the basic act of feeding someone sick and in need – and that’s very important to us. A minority of donors -- 16% -- know someone who’s received meals or groceries from us, so that lets us know that we’re doing well with the broader community. It’s a powerful statement about the generosity of the Bay Area.”

    And we also learned what’s most important to you – 82% indicated that the home-delivered meals to those homebound and seriously ill were very important to you, while 75% indicated that the nutrition and services we offer to those living with HIV/AIDS were also very important.

    It was also a survey with a particularly difficult question – if, understanding that we are living in uncertain times, where we might best make cuts if we had to in the face of a tightening budget, 41% said to scale back the size of our meals, while 21% believed we should reduce the number of meals we serve to clients.
   
    “While we are understandably wanting feedback with regards to the economic climate, we also wanted to ask people how we might change in other ways as well. Currently we serve those living with HIV/AIDS, serious illnesses, and seniors in Alameda and San Francisco Counties, but we know there are needs in other communities as well,” Tom says.

    “So we asked where – if money were no object, we might broaden our work. 48% believed we should expand to other parts of the Bay Area, while 33% believed we should expand our services to other people in need.”

    POH also received a large number of comments – many quite touching. Some included:

               “Project Open Hand has helped me survive ever since I was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the early 90s. It’s meant the world to me. Thank you so much.”

               “I really appreciate the work that Open Hand does since I am a child of the Depression and remember what it was like to go hungry.”

               “POH has brought me more than I could ever give – I’ve made life-long friendships and found a really caring community.”

               “POH does good work that is well-intentioned, well-executed, and tangible.”

              "Many thanks to all of our donors who responded to this survey, for your frankness and for your support that makes all of this possible".


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    Separate chicken breasts into halves, clean off any gristle and extraneous fat, allowing skin to remain, trimming for a neat appearance. Whisk oils into vinegar. Slowly add rest of ingredients to taste, mashing in 1 pint of berries and reserving the remaining pint for garnish. Two hours before grilling, marinate the chicken in ½ cup of the marinade. Allow enough time for the fire to become very hot when you are ready to grill. Pat the breasts with paper towel and grill to desired doneness. After grilling, arrange on platter, sprinkling remaining marinade over chicken and top with remainder of berries as garnish and serve.

    
3 whole free-range chicken breasts
½ cup safflower oil
½ cup olive oil
½ cup raspberry or blackberry vinegar
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced thyme, Italian parsley, and marjoram
Zest of 1 orange
2 pints blackberries



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