July 2003

Project Open Hand: The Standard Bearer in Meal Delivery

by Canon Sue Kuebler

Thanks to the tremendous organizational skills of our Co-Chair, Bruce Garner, every moment of the time the NEAC Board of Directors spent in Atlanta for its spring meeting was put to good use. Friday’s schedule was replete with site visits to AIDS service organizations.

Just before lunch our schedule took us to Project Open Hand. The facility was alive with passionate people committed to their mission, which is to “provide freshly cooked meals and nutrition services to people living with symptomatic HIV/AIDS, homebound seniors, and individuals with other critical illnesses or disabilities.”

Billy Alford and Alfredo Macaya with kitchen staff of Project Open Hand

Billy Alford and Alfredo Macaya with kitchen staff of Project Open Hand

This impressive ministry began in 1988 to feed persons with AIDS. What began with fourteen clients became a thriving program that by 2000 was delivering two freshly cooked meals each day to an average of 600 men, women, and children living with AIDS.

In October of 2000, Project Open Hand revisited its mission and “made more room at the table” (their words) by expanding its services to reach out to additional populations. These were the critically ill and disabled under the age of 60 and homebound senior citizens not served by any other agency. “It was simply the right thing to do,” said Steven Woods, Project Open Hand’s executive director.

Services are offered within a six-county area. Clients who are referred to Project Open Hand by physicians or caseworkers get meals delivered within 24 hours of their request. Thirteen different menus are available to respond to a variety of dietary restrictions and needs. Special attention is given to food safety, diet prescriptions, and possible drug interactions. Recipes are also provided that use ingredients supplied through the Project Open Hand food pantry.

The volunteers are the heart of this organization. There are many, approximately 100 each day, seven days a week throughout the year. Together they prepare, pack, and deliver 3,000 meals daily. Even the very young are put to work, adding their crayon art to brown paper bags that are then filled with nutritious snacks for clients. Birthday cakes and cards are provided and special meals to celebrate holidays.

Even pets are remembered. Project Open Hands networks with an organization called pals—Pets Are Loving Support. A delivery might also include a lap robe from The Smoking Needle, a local knitting group. Clients who have no other means for warming their meals are given microwave ovens.

Project Open Hand is also the home of tack, The Atlanta Collaborative Kitchen. This unique training program transforms previously unemployable individuals into skilled workers for the culinary and food service professions. Our lunch was prepared by tack chefs and it was delicious. Many of us assumed we would be served the sandwiches that we had watched the volunteers prepare on the line. However, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch of warm pasta and seafood that was beautifully presented and a very welcome treat. Lest you think that we received special treatment, it should be known that tack also manages a reclaiming program where fresh, perishable, and bulk foods that would have gone unused are transformed into high-quality flash frozen meals. We just happened to be there on a day when the chef had shrimp that needed to be consumed!

Project Open Hand is a shining example of how one person’s vision can make a difference in the lives of others. It is doubtful that in 1977 when Michael Edwards-Pruitt, an Atlanta artist and sculptor, began preparing meals in his home for friends with AIDS—and eventually in donated kitchen space at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church—he had any idea of what his work would become. Although his legacy is a sad testament to the spread of AIDS over the past two decades, his loving response now benefits all who are ill and hungry.

The Board of Directors of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition wishes to thank Project Open Hand for sharing its facilities with us. If you would like to learn more about this vibrant organization, please contact them at www.projectopenhand.org.