September 27, 2006
Contact: Andrew Arnold
(415) 447-2412
aarnold@openhand.org
Project Open Hand Awarded Special Grant from MAC
Local Agency One of 12 Organizations Funded to Provide More Services for People with HIV/AIDS
SAN FRANCISCO: This month, Project Open Hand received a $500,000 grant from the MAC AIDS Fund to expand its services to people living with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco and Alameda County. The grant represents the largest single gift from a corporation in Project Open Hand's 21-year history.
Project Open Hand was selected along with 11 other HIV/AIDS service organizations in the U.S. and Canada to benefit from $6 million in total funding, which was earmarked to address what the MAC AIDS Fund calls "crucial areas of need affecting the HIV/AIDS epidemic and those living with the virus."
The special funding will allow POH to provide one additional protein selection for clients in the Grocery Center, and add a selection of soups and stews to the agency's delivered meals service.
"Clients have been asking for these added food choices for some time, but we couldn't afford them because of budget limitations," says POH Executive Director Tom Nolan. "But they make so much sense. Our clients not only want the extra choices; additional protein and nutritious, easy-to-prepare soups and stews will also help them cope better with the HIV/AIDS virus and the medications they take to combat it."
"Now that our clients living with HIV/AIDS are aging, maintaining proper nutrition is more important than ever," Nolan says.
"This grant was especially rewarding because it comes in addition to the regular annual funding we receive from MAC, which is already generous," says Kate Peltier, Manager of Corporate and Foundation Partnerships at POH. "Also, we were one of just 25 agencies asked to apply for this funding, which means we were competing with a select group of peers."
The grants were announced in New York City on September 6, in a special ceremony launching MAC's Viva Glam 6 lipstick line. MAC contributes 100 per cent of the sales of Viva Glam lipsticks and glosses to HIV and AIDS programs. POH Executive Director Nolan attended the ceremony, and accepted the award from MAC spokeswoman Lisa Marie Presley.
Project Open Hand was founded in San Francisco in 1985 by Ruth Brinker, a retired food service manager, who began serving a nightly dinner to seven friends dying of AIDS. Today, the agency provides 2,500 bags of groceries and over 11,000 meals each week to people in need in San Francisco and Alameda County. The first agency in the U.S. to provide home-delivered meals to people with HIV/AIDS, Project Open Hand has served as a model for 150 similar agencies throughout the U.S. and worldwide.
Since 1985, Project Open Hand has served over ten million meals.
For more information, visit www.openhand.org.
