San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, November 9, 2001
Vicky Elliott

"I don't know how you say thank you for 35 pounds," he says, describing how the program has offered him, as a person living with HIV, not only hot meals every day, but groceries and the nutritional advice that has helped him stay well. "It's been possible for me to get that part of my health back."

In May, Project Open Hand opened a new kitchen in the California Hotel on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, a shiny facility with state-of-the-art equipment underwritten by Providian Financial, Macy's and Wells Fargo, among other donors. The renovation took under a year; the fund-raising campaign for it, which has run for two years, is $150,000 short of the $800,000 cost.

The nonprofit organization -- which Ruth Brinker started at Trinity Church in San Francisco in 1985, cooking for seven friends with AIDS -- has come a long way. It now serves 1,800 meals a day.

The East Bay center serves people with HIV/AIDS and the homebound and hopes to serve lunches for seniors in the future. "The goal of this new facility is to feed as many people as possible," said Tom Nolan, Open Hand's executive director.

About a quarter of its funds come from the federal government, under the Ryan White CARE Act, and 44 percent from individuals. The organization's annual budget is $9 million, of which about $800,000 pays for its East Bay operations.

In May, Project Open Hand served its seven millionth meal in San Francisco and in Alameda County.

The California Hotel was a happening place in Oakland in the 1950s and '60s, a favorite African American meeting place and a center for jazz, gospel and blues where B.B. King and Ray Charles came to play. More recently, it had housed a Latin American nightclub that closed four years ago. There was plenty of space, with room for Project Open Hand to move its grocery over from Telegraph Avenue. Several of its clients, who live in the building upstairs, can stop by to pick up a meal -- the heat-packed trays prepared daily by chef Jackson and his volunteers might be loaded with, say, smothered barbecued pork chops and mashed potatoes, or seafood creole with okra and golden rice.

Jackson, who learned his trade in five-star restaurants in Atlanta, has introduced a Southern cast to the menus he draws up every six weeks. Many of his clients may have grown up in Texas or Mississippi before they came to California, but you don't have to have a Southern background to appreciate food this appetizing.

Jackson took the basic menu, he says, and the same ingredients, and added Southern touches of his own: pork with a mulberry glaze, for example, from May through July when mulberries are in season; Cornish game hens stuffed with oranges and with the traditional eggplant and peppers on the side as a garnish; or three-bean chili with cornbread.

Because the food must stay hot for up to six hours -- volunteers store it in hot boxes during their rounds -- Jackson has to choose his ingredients carefully.

Russet potatoes, for example, go mushy if they sit around too long; Jackson uses only golden potatoes. In his seafood creole, he has to substitute mahi- mahi for the traditional catfish because it holds up better.

Dietary requirements of the 200 or so clients every day vary depending on the state of their health, and the crew usually makes 13 versions of the meals they cook every day. Some of the clients can only tolerate low-fat meals without dairy products; some don't eat red meat, pork or poultry; some can only take bland food or "mechanically soft" meals that have to be pureed or cut up.

Jackson often treats the vegetarians to a base of minced carrots, celery and onions; and he has some nifty berry smoothies (the recipe went out in a recent newsletter) that blend in tofu for extra thickness and protein.

Project Open Hand's dietitian, Julie Engberg, points out that the new drug regimens that have prolonged so many lives have drawbacks. "We've found that some HIV medications have increased risk factors for heart disease, including raising cholesterol and contributing to high triglycerides," she notes.

"Understanding the importance of low fat and low cholesterol cooking can help our clients lower their risk of a heart attack, help prevent heart disease and high blood pressure, and help preserve lean muscle tissue."

Frozen meals, for more flexibility, are delivered three at a time on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The secret ingredient of Project Open Hand always has been the human interaction that it brings into the daily lives of the critically ill. "The real story is often told by a smile, a hug, a simple human gesture of support, "says Nolan. Thomas recalls how difficult it was for him to come to terms with the fact that he would have to go on disability. "I'm a child from Detroit," he says, recalling when he first heard about the program. "It sounds like government cheese to me. But I was truly treated with respect and compassion. They deliver, literally and figuratively speaking."

The program has added a new arrow to its bow: service for the homebound under age 60. People forced to stay at home because of breast cancer or arthritis, for example, or even those who have suffered a serious accident or injury and are confined to the house for a period, are eligible to apply for the daily meals, delivered free.

And while its rolls only include 200 people, from Richmond to Hayward, there's room to grow. The kitchen could handle several hundred more clients a day, and is actively soliciting more.

They hope to open the grocery at the California Hotel in February or March of 2002.

E-mail Vicky Elliott at velliott@sfchronicle.com.
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