Last week was the official worldwide observance of the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial. Staff and leaders at Food & Friends gathered to share stories, memories, reflect on those we lost, and honor people living with HIV/AIDS.
In 1988, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Reverend Carla Gorrell met with leaders of Westminster Presbyterian Church to discuss their vision for a home-delivered meal service for people with AIDS. A few contributors provided start-up funds, and 21 area restaurants donated meals to be delivered – one meal a day, five days a week. We served the isolated and ill: those suffering with HIV/AIDS and pushed to society’s margins. Food & Friends started in a cramped church kitchen on a shoestring budget. These beginnings drove us to be innovative and inventive in everything we do.
Reverend Carla Gorrell, Founder, Food & Friends
In the decades to follow, the lessons we learned serving our neighbors with HIV/AIDS empowered us to evolve and serve neighbors living with other illnesses. Registered dietitians joined the staff to extend the level of care beyond just nourishing meals. We then began serving more adults and children living with illnesses, like breast and lung cancer, Parkinson’s, and diabetes. The meals became medically tailored, designed to meet highly specific nutritional needs.
Now, 34 years since our founding, we have served 25 million meals to more than 41,000 individuals with serious illnesses, including their dependents and caregivers. We never lost sight of the core values of compassion, excellence, community, dignity, reliability, innovation, and accountability that propel us forward. Food & Friends is an organization that lives its values.
The wellspring of compassion from which our volunteers, donors, and elevate our mission is the driving force that keeps us ever relevant. It is one thing to provide a meal, but providing a source of community support, individualized care, and neighborly love is what sets us apart.
So, when it came time to observe the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial for 2022, our team engaged with joy, and organized a gathering of honor and reflection. Many of our staff today are too young to remember the AIDS epidemic as it once was known. Others have spent decades of their lives on the frontlines of helping others, like Tommy Zarembka, Strategic Partnerships Director, who led the event.
Photographs on the wall in our building of individuals served by Food & Friends who we lost to AIDS
Last year, we spent a full day of staff enrichment and education focusing on the history of the epidemic. The advent of better medications and pre-exposure prophylactics has changed the way the world sees HIV/AIDS, but we can’t lose sight of the history of the illness and the ways that homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and stigma contributed to the inadequate response to the epidemic at the global level.
The event began with a song by Diana Liao of SongRise, a D.C.-based women’s social justice a capella group. We then heard reflections from staff and leaders. We were joined by our founder, the Reverend Carla Gorrell, who took us on a journey through the early years of Food & Friends and the obstacles they had to traverse to reach neighbors living with AIDS. Carrie Stoltzfus, MPH, Executive Director, shared insights on compassion and reflections on empowering neighbors living with HIV/AIDS from nearly two decades of service and leadership at Food & Friends. Tommy Zarembka told stories of the deep friendships he made and the friends he lost doing direct-service work for persons living with HIV/AIDS in the 1990s at Joseph’s House.
The reflections closed with a speech by George Bednar, CPA, Director of Finance & Administration. George retraced four decades of the epidemic, from the moment he first heard of an unknown illness impacting the gay community in 1981, when he was just 19 years old, to today. His stirring speech tells a story of loss, hope and friendship. Please enjoy George’s speech in its entirety here:
All attendees received a limited-edition community art screen print organized and conceptualized by Bethany Hansen of the Arcade D.C. Food & Friends staff and artists from across the community including Nia Keturah Calhoun, Andrew Baritz, and Chelsea Ritter-Soronen contributed original panels.
International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Screenprint
People living with HIV started the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial in 1983. Today, there are still close to 40 million people living with HIV worldwide. In Washington, D.C. more than 12,000 individuals are living with HIV/AIDS. Last year, Food & Friends delivered 224,171 meals to our neighbors living with HIV/AIDS. We are proud to share that of those individuals we served: 82% reported improved physical health while on our service, and 75% reported improved mental health.