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Living With AIDS
Open Hand/Atlanta: A Recipe for Caring
Michael Edwards, director of Open Hand, carries his dreams very close to the surface of
his heart and makes things happen. He believed that people with AIDS (PWAs) should be
provided with nourishing meals. He believed it so strongly that he visited Ruth Brinker at
Project Open Hand/San Francisco to learn how her project worked. Following the visit,
Michael decided that he could do a similar project in Atlanta and began operating Open
Hand/Atlanta from the kitchen of Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on LaVista Road.
The operation is at once simple and very complicated. Michael says that it is about
providing people with "good food." What actually happens is that meals are prepared by a
core of volunteers and delivered to the homes of PWA's. Two meals are delivered at
once-lunch and dinner. On the surface, it is a utilitarian set-up: food for people who need it
and are unable to prepare their own. The complicated part occurs when the realization
comes that for many of the people with AIDS, this is the only contact they have with
anyone during the day.
I decided that if I was going to write about Open Hand, I had to also experience it, so I
spent a day participating in the preparation and the delivery process. Michael picked me up
early that morning and on the ride to the church, he chatted about prices of chicken and
sales on vegetables. His van was loaded with chickens he had cooked the night before at
home and huge bags of rolls and bread he had purchased on sale. We arrived at the church,
unloaded and Michael put the food preparation tasks on a chalk board. Other volunteers
came in within minutes. Tom was going to make a favorite recipe, primarily made with
apples and onions and people teased him about how awful it would taste. Someone had
donated a freezer to Open Hand and an electrician came by to say he had fixed the wiring.
The phone rang constantly and Jean Levine answered it and conferred with Michael about
routes and changes. Michael chatted on about storage space and how he hoped to fill the
freezer with cakes and other goodies prepared by volunteers at baking parties in their
homes. I deboned and chopped about twelve chickens for the entree for the next day. Other
people chopped, sliced, diced, peeled, made sauces, laughed, teased and tasted out of the
boiling pots. There was a constant good-natured banter about the apples and onions dish.
There was also an ongoing reference to how so-and-so was doing and whether they were in
or out of the hospital. Everyone kept an eye on the clock. Food had to be ready to dish up
by eleven when the drivers came.
JO GIRAUDO
Project Open Hand/Atlanta volunteers (from 1-r) Micky Betts, Robert Hall,
founder Mike Edwards, Greg Clark and Elizabeth Reed put the final touches
on the Halloween meal.
WAITERS
COOKS
DRIVERS
We’re Project Open Hand and our sole purpose is to
prepare and deliver meals to home-bound people
with AIDS. If you can volunteer an hour and a
half one day a week you’ll find yourself sharing,
giving and receiving the most wonderful reward of
JO GIRAUDO
Driver Mike Kennedy delivers lunch and supper to PWA Joe Tomlin, as part
of Project Open Hand/Atlanta. Tomlin's meal was one of 20 nutritious ones to
be served that day.
When the drivers arrived they joined the kitchen crew and ladled generous servings of
food into the styrofoam containers, closing them quickly to keep them warm. People came
in with food from restaurants to add to the deliveries. The drivers and the kitchen crew
greeted one another with jokes and hugs and warmth. I rode with Ron on the Southwest
Atlanta route. Ron takes his lunch hour to deliver these meals.
The first delivery was made to a man who lives in project housing. He was up and
waiting for the delivery, all smiles, said his chest was feeling better and that the weather was
helping him out. He was classically thin and shaky but accepted the food gratefully and
opened the boxes curiously to see what was in them. Ron asked if he needed anything and
the man said no, that he was doing fine.
The second delivery was made to a man who was in bed. The door was open so that we
could get in with the meals. The man was too sick to do more than vaguely acknowledge
our presence. Ron asked if he needed anything. The man said yes but didn't say what it
was he needed. He lives in one very small room and the room was in bad shape. Things
were sitting and laying everywhere. Although there was an electric blanket on the bed, he
was shivering. After Ron's continued asking if he could do something, the man asked for
Kool-aid in a glass with ice. Ron asked if anyone else had come by that day and the man
said nobody had been there. We left slowly, knowing that the man most likely couldn't eat
the food we were leaving without assistance.
The third delivery was made to a man with a nurse attending him. He was suffering
from dementia and did not communicate at all. His nurse talked to me while we were
waiting there. She said she had a son with AIDS whose lover didn't want him to get the free
meals because, in her opinion, the lover felt it was shameful.
I could go on with the descriptions but the point is there. Michael Edwards and Open
Hand volunteers are responding to a truly basic human need in our community. And more
is needed. Volunteers are needed in the kitchen and to drive. Contributions of money are
needed. Cooking parties are needed. Shoppers are needed. Canned goods are needed. The
slogan on the Open Hand brochure says, "Your heart's in the right place...Now put your
hands there, too." Michael and many others are putting their heart in the project and using
their hands to serve a community that is in serious need.
- Rebecca Ranson
Project Open Hand/Atlanta can be reached at 248-1788. Contributions, supplies and
equipment are needed. All contributions are tax deductible. Call or write Open Hand at
1790 iMVista Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 and ask for their "wish list." If you have items
to donate Open Hand will arrange to pick them up.
A Thanksgi fund raising drive is currently under way. Open Hand has asked that
the community keep our PWAs in mind while preparing for the holiday. A minimum
donation of $15 will provide at least 6 meals for PWAs.
A benefit performance for Open Hand will be held on December 4th at For Love and
For Life II. Call 584-2104for details.
To give a little of yourself, and your time, call:
PROJECT OPEN HAND
248-1788
"Living With AIDS" is written by those personally affected by the AIDS crisis. PWAs,
PWARCs, HIV-positive persons, their family and loved ones, health care professionals,
teachers, attorneys, and anyone in the community who has been touched by this epidemic
are urged to submit to "Living With AIDS" by writing Southern Voice, P.O. Box 54719,
Atlanta, GA 30308. The HIV status of any author of this column, unless specifically stated
by the author, should not be assumed.