POH Looks to Expand Food Services

Project Open Hand, the San Francisco-based nonprofit in the Tenderloin that provides meals to thousands of people living with AIDS and other diseases, is working to expand services to neighborhoods including the Mission and Bayview.

"We're going to start going to where the clients are, not asking them to come to us," Mark Ryle, POH's CEO, said.

He hopes to have vans equipped with freezers and ovens delivered by Christmas and launch the program January 1. The days and times the vans will be available for clients haven't been determined.

"We'll be able to sign them up right on site," Ryle said, and "they'll be able to take food with them."

Clients will just need to share whether they're HIV-positive, which can be confirmed on site, and that they're a San Francisco resident.

"The city has identified a few hotspots for mortality and infection rates around HIV," and "where the infection rates are still high," Ryle said.

One of the agencies POH is in discussions with is Mission Neighborhood Health Center, which is at 240 Shotwell Street.

Shaddai Martinez, the center's HIV clinic director, said plans aren't definite yet, but her agency will meet with POH this week to discuss logistics.

"I would love to do that," Martinez said of the van, but "we haven't sorted out the details."

"I think it will be great," she said. "A lot of our clients are in this side of town. ... Often we lose people in the referral process because they don't make it" to POH's headquarters at 730 Polk Street because it's "an extra step they have to do."

"Having it on site would be fantastic," she said.

Martinez said that about 80 percent of clients who get HIV services through the center are Latino. Many of them are recent immigrants who are monolingual and "not fully connected" with the community and what services are available.

She estimated that 70 to 80 percent of the clients are gay, and that half of them are at least 45 years or older.

Many of the clients also live in single-room occupancy hotels without cooking facilities or places to store food.

"A lot of these meals are very essential for them," Martinez said of the assistance POH offers.

Another potential site for a van is Southeast Health Center, at 2401 Keith Street in the Bayview. A staff person wasn't available Tuesday to talk about the project.

Ryle said his nonprofit has a budget of $11.2 million. It also offers some services in Oakland.

"This was our highest-revenue year in our history of operating," he said. "... We raised more money last year than we ever did before."

What made the difference is "I think we're telling our story better," including by sharing research that shows a 63 percent reduction in hospitalizations, Ryle said.

"If you're eating well, you're less likely to get sick," he said.

The cost of buying, stocking, and staffing the vans will be at least $150,000 "to get everything set up," Ryle said. The money's coming from private funds, as well as government sources.