AEGiS-PRn: Whole Foods Market(R) to Raise Funds for the Boston Living Center to Provide Meals for People Living With HIV/AIDS

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Whole Foods Market(R) to Raise Funds for the Boston Living Center to Provide Meals for People Living With HIV/AIDS

PRNewswire - November 1, 2004

BOSTON, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- This month, shoppers at the 13 greater Boston-area locations of Whole Foods Market (formerly Bread and Circus) can provide meals to people living with HIV who might otherwise go hungry. During the month-long promotion, people can 'Buy a Meal for Someone Living with HIV/AIDS' by making a tax-deductible donation of $3.50 (lunch) or $5.00 (dinner) at check out. The Boston Living Center (BLC) provides more than 40,000 hot, nutritious meals yearly to HIV positive members through its Congregate Meals Program. With approximately 75 percent of the BLC's members living at or below the poverty level, the meal they have at the Center is, for many, the only hot meal they have each day. At month-end, Whole Foods Markets presents the Boston Living Center with a check for the combined value of the donations. Last year, Whole Foods Market customers donated more than $23,000 to the BLC.

The 13 participating stores are in Bedford, Bellingham, Boston, Brighton/Brookline, Cambridge (Central Square, Fresh Pond Mall and River Street), Framingham, Hingham, Newton, Newtonville, Wayland, and Wellesley Hills. Exact locations can be found at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com Founded in 1989, the Boston Living Center is a non-profit community and resource center dedicated to serving all people infected with HIV/AIDS. The Center currently has 2,400 HIV positive members who can participate in a range of services in a welcoming and supportive community. In addition to serving a congregate meal six days a week, the Center also provides holistic and mental health services, treatment information, medication adherence programs, employment support and nutritional consultations. All services are designed to help the HIV positive members learn to live with HIV/AIDS. More information about the Center, located at 29 Stanhope Street, in Boston, can be found at the BLC's website: http://www.bostonlivingcenter.org

"For over nine years the generous customers of Whole Foods Market have supported our members through this annual promotion," said Cathy Morales, Executive Director, Boston Living Center. "While many people consider HIV/AIDS to only be a problem of the inner city, our members come from all over eastern Massachusetts, and we are heartened every year by the generous response of Whole Foods Market customers from throughout the area. All of the programming we offer to our members is provided free of charge, and the need for our services continues to grow each year, so we depend on the altruistic support from people like the customers of Whole Foods Market."

Whole Foods Market is the world's largest natural and organic foods supermarket and America's first national certified organic grocer with more than 160 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The Whole Foods Market motto, "Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet"(TM) captures the company's mission to find success in customer satisfaction and wellness, employee excellence and happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and environmental improvement. Whole Foods Market, Harry's Farmers Market(R), and Fresh & Wild(R) are trademarks owned by Whole Foods Market IP, LP. Whole Foods Market employs more than 30,000 team members and has been ranked for seven consecutive years as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work for" in America by Fortune magazine.

Contact:

David Hough

Boston Living Center

617.450.1521

Diego Sanchez, APR

AIDS Action Committee

617.450.1524

SOURCE AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc. (AAC)

041101
PR041109

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