Washington Blade - April 6, 2007
Joshua Lynsen

"It's kind of like Big Brothers Big Sisters for HIV," said the 32-year-old gay man, who is HIV positive. "They're very caring. They don't just drop off bags of food. They drop off bags of cheer. They give me what I need."

But the assistance he's received throughout the last year might soon end. Mosi is among the 98 adults and children that Moveable Feast expects to drop this month after losing $145,000 in Ryan White CARE Act funding.

The cut, enacted last month by the Greater Baltimore HIV Health Services Planning Council, stems from an overall reduction in the region's CARE Act funding and a shift of remaining funds to support medical programs.

Vic Basile, executive director of Moveable Feast, said the cut means his organization will soon halt deliveries to an estimated 40 HIV-positive adults and about 60 children.

"The rationale for all that is if the mother is too sick to shop and prepare meals for herself, then what happens to the kids if you don't provide a service to them?" he said. "We're really talking about family values and keeping families intact."

It was those efforts toward inclusion, though, that stand to hurt Mosi and other Moveable Feast beneficiaries.

Basile said when the funding cut was passed, Council members indicated they opposed Moveable Feast's efforts to help "affected" children and instructed the organization to refocus its efforts on assisting the "infected," or people living with HIV or AIDS.

The decision, Basile said, is one he could understand if Moveable Feast had fallen short of its goals.

"But in our case, we feed a lot more people than we're contracted to feed," he said, "and we feed a lot more infected people than we feed affected."

Basile said Moveable Feast is contracted to feed about 250 people yet served more than 400 adults and children in Baltimore and surrounding areas last year.

Although the bulk of those beneficiaries were HIV positive, Basile said the Planning Council's decision stands.

"I think it's unfair for a planning council to make decisions that are punitive as opposed to based on actual need," he said. "And it is clearly not what Congress intended when they empowered planning councils with this kind of authority."

Moral imperative?

Basile said he's also disappointed that while Mosi and others will lose the food they need, the Planning Council didn't reduce its own CARE Act allocation of $750,000.

"I guess it's legal," he said. "But if money is really the issue, isn't the moral imperative there that those entities take a look at their own budgets?"

Lennie Green, Council chair, did not respond to calls for comment.

Basile said Moveable Feast's liaison to the planning council, Associated Black Charities, is appealing the funding cut.

"To their credit, they have twice tried to rectify this problem, and the planning council has twice rebuffed them," he said. "I think they will try again, but I don't know what the options are."

Basile, who served as the Human Rights Campaign's first executive director and remains a board member, said he cannot call on the nation's largest gay civil rights group to help.

"The solution isn't really a congressional one so this would be well out of their routine to take on," he said. "It would be inappropriate for me to ask and inappropriate for them to give us any money."

But he hasn't stopping looking for a solution. New funds are being sought through donors and grant requests.

"As we identify new funding, we'll begin putting people back on as soon as we can," he said. "Whether we get the Ryan White funding or not, if we can raise the money from other sources, we'll put them back on."

Mosi said he's hopeful the Planning Council could yet reverse its decision, but the unemployed Baltimorean has begun seeking help elsewhere.

He also said the Planning Council should "think wise and long" on what it's wrought.

"Moveable Feast really does a lot for the community and their mission and food indeed does save lives," Mosi said. "Just, please, don't hurt no one."
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