AEGiS-PRn: Project Open Hand's Caring Cuisine Graces the Plates of Hundreds of Men, Women And Children in the Bay Area This Thanksgiving

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Project Open Hand's Caring Cuisine Graces the Plates of Hundreds of Men, Women And Children in the Bay Area This Thanksgiving

PRNewswire - November 22, 1999

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Project Open Hand's work and its mission -- Meals with Love -- takes on special resonance during Thanksgiving, the holiday so closely associated with food. The kitchen at 730 Polk Street in San Francisco will be buzzing with activity as staff and volunteers prepare more than 800 traditional Thanksgiving meals of turkey and stuffing and all the trimmings for people living with AIDS. Project Open Hand will also be providing a holiday feast to the doctors, nurses, patients and their loved ones at Ward 5A, the AIDS and oncology unit at San Francisco General Hospital. In addition, the holiday trimmings will also grace the plates of over 400 senior citizens who are a part of Project Open Hand Senior Lunch Program, feeding senior's throughout San Francisco. In all, over 1,200 holiday meals will be prepared and delivered on Thanksgiving.

The activity at Project Open Hand begins at 9:00 a.m. when volunteers arrive, and along with staff chefs, start preparing and cooking the holiday feast. "Imagine cooking your holiday dinner for 12, multiply that by 100 and you have Project Open Hand's Thanksgiving experience. Except we take it a step further and deliver the dinner to your home," explains Tom Nolan, Executive Director. At 12:30, the action moves to "the line" where more than 1,200 individual meals are packaged and sorted. Then at around 3:45 p.m., delivery volunteers begin arriving to take the meals to clients at their homes. These volunteers not only deliver a nutritious, delicious meal, they deliver the assurance to clients that they are not alone in their fight for health. "The holidays can be difficult for people with AIDS, many of whom have lost friends or family and can feel especially isolated," states Nolan. "Our efforts counter this sense of isolation and help bring the spirit of the holiday to the men, women and children we serve."

Of course, none of this work would be possible without the amazing work of the Project Open Hand volunteers -- men, women and young people from all over the Bay Area who care. "An amazing feast of life occurs at Project Open Hand on a daily basis," continues Nolan. "We share the essence of Thanksgiving everyday of the year; volunteers, staff, donors and community folks come together to share love and compassion through food." This Thursday, more than 100 volunteers will be spending part of their own holiday making a tremendous difference in the lives of many others.

SOURCE Project Open Hand

CONTACT: Kevin Swanson of Project Open Hand, 415-447-2421/
991122
PR991122

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