Project Open Hand is a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that provides medically tailored meals and groceries to elderly and homebound people in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a List of counties in California, county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and List ...

. Founded in 1985 to deliver meals to people with

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

, it also took over

food bank A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direc ...

s in the 1980s and 1990s and in the 21st century extended its services to include people with other acute and chronic conditions and to serve lunches to seniors. Its headquarters are at 730

Polk Street Polk Street (also sometimes referred to by its German name, ''Polkstrasse'') is a street in San Francisco, California, that travels northward from Market Street to Beach Street and is one of the main thoroughfares of the Polk Gulch neighborhood t ...

in the Tenderloin; its CEO is Paul Hepfer. __TOC__

History

Project Open Hand was created in 1985 by

Ruth Brinker Ruth Marie Brinker (May 1, 1922 – August 8, 2011) was an American AIDS activist and founder of the nonprofit, Project Open Hand. She began her activism in 1985 by providing food and meals to home-bound AIDS patients in San Francisco who were too ...

, who had worked in food service and as an executive director for

Meals on Wheels Meals on Wheels is a programme that delivers meals to individuals at home who are unable to purchase or prepare their own meals. The name is often used generically to refer to home-delivered meals programmes, not all of which are actually named ...

and recognized the relatively small number of

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...

for those infected with

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

and their particular need for nourishing food since there was at the time no treatment for AIDS. It began as meal service to seven people with AIDS, paid for by a $2,000 grant from the

San Francisco Zen Center San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. Th ...

and the Golden Gate Business Association. Meals were initially cooked in her kitchen and later at Trinity Episcopal Church; in 1987, a grant from the

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...

enabled a move to a professional kitchen, and Project Open Hand took over a food bank. In 1991, it also took over the AIDS Food Bank from the

San Francisco AIDS Foundation The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing services for people with HIV/AIDS, with a mission to end the AIDS epidemic in the United States. They were founded in 1982, at the beginning of the AIDS ...

. It served 500 meals a day by 1988, and opened its

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

branch on October 17, 1989, the day of the

Loma Prieta earthquake The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...

; it opened a second professional kitchen in Oakland in 1996, and in 1997 moved to 730 Polk Street, which it had purchased as its headquarters. Tom Nolan, executive director from 1994 to 2011, began expanding the organization's mission to include senior citizens and people with serious illnesses other than AIDS and chronic conditions such as

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

. Nolan was succeeded by Kevin Winge, who expanded food pickup services from those with HIV or

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

to people with other conditions including

and

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

, followed in 2016 by Mark Ryle. Paul Hepfer became executive director in March 2019. In 2014–16, Project Open Hand participated in a study by the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

of the role of nutritious food in supporting the sick; since its institution in June 2017, it has played a major role in Food is Medicine, a three-year state-funded pilot project to provide medically tailored meals to chronically ill people receiving assistance through

Medi-Cal The California Medical Assistance Program (Medi-Cal or MediCal) is California's Medicaid program serving low-income individuals, including families, seniors, persons with disabilities, children in foster care, pregnant women, and childless adults wi ...

, the California version of

Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...

. Much of the organization's work is done by volunteers, 125 a day in 2003. It is funded by a combination of donations, including from foundations such as the Isabel Allende Foundation, federal, and city assistance. it delivered 1,600 dinners a day and 1,500 bags of groceries a week, and provided as many as 300 bags of groceries to walk-in clients at its food bank. it was serving almost 2,000 clients a day, and in 2004 it had a total of 30,000 clients. it was receiving $5.6 million a year in donations and government funding and serving almost 2,600 meals a day, to seniors and people with cancer and other serious illnesses in addition to AIDS, as well as providing groceries. it had a $10 million budget and served approximately 8,000 clients, including 4,400 in the senior lunch program. it provided 2,500 meals and 200 bags of groceries a day. Until 2020, when the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

prevented it, it also hosted holiday gatherings at the end of the year. Responding to the AIDS emergency led many charities formed at the time, including Project Open Hand, to prioritize services over bookkeeping; after being taken to task by the ''

Bay Area Reporter The ''Bay Area Reporter'' is a free weekly newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', the organization instituted a board of directors and reduced pay for the director. In the late 1980s and early 1990s its finances were investigated and no improprieties found.

References

External links

Project Open Hand
{{AIDS Hunger relief organizations HIV/AIDS organizations in the United States Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco 1985 establishments in California Organizations established in 1985