** About Us **
A Loving Spoonful is a volunteer-driven, non-partisan Society that provides free, nutritious meals to people living with HIV/AIDS in Greater Vancouver.
Every week, all year round for over 19 years, our volunteers deliver approximately 1200 frozen meals and over 250 snack packs to men, women and children who are primarily homebound with AIDS. Our average meal cost is only $3.50. A Loving Spoonful is the constant support of over 250 adults and children living with HIV/AIDS throughout the Greater Vancouver area.
** OUR MISSION **
Our mission is to make sure that no one living with AIDS lives with hunger. Achieving our mission requires the loving, coordinated effort of a community of volunteers, staff, donors and supporters. It is through this dedicated support that A Loving Spoonful has been able to provide our services free of charge for almost twenty years.
** Facts & FAQs **
The challenges of HIV/AIDS are many, our vision but one: to enhance the quality of life of men, women and children living with HIV by meeting their basic need for food.
Our mission is simple. A Loving Spoonful is a volunteer-driven, non-partisan society that provides free nutritious meals to people living with HIV in the Greater Vancouver area.
Our belief is by meeting this fundamental need, we improve our clients’ health and well being, enabling them to focus on life's other challenges.
A Loving Spoonful delivers 100,000 free, nutritious meals to men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS in the Greater Vancouver Area.
* The average daily cost for each meal is $3.50.
* A Loving Spoonful is a volunteer-driven charity that boasts over 150 active
volunteers, four full-time staff, and two part-time staff.
* The charity operates under the mission statement that no one living with
AIDS should live with hunger.
* As many of 80% of AIDS deaths are immediately precipitated by malnutrition
rather than by the disease itself. Unfortunately, some people who are HIV+
or who have developed AIDS lack the physical endurance or resources to
properly feed themselves.
* There are many ways to help A Loving Spoonful. You can volunteer your time,
donate funds or donate gifts in kind. Display our “Make A Dish Come True”
coin canister in your business. A Loving Spoonful also produces two major
in-house fundraising events each year for which we require sponsorship,
prizes and silent auction items. Please consider contributing to Project
Empty Bowl, or the World AIDS Day Luncheon.
* A Loving Spoonful receives 77% of its funding from private donations and
grants, rather than government funding.
* A Loving Spoonful spends 8% of all revenues on salaries and other costs to
raise those dollars.
* Administration costs account for 9% of total expenses per year.
* Service and program delivery accounts for 83% of A Loving Spoonful’s budget.
History Of A Loving Spoonful
A Loving Spoonful started in 1989, sprung from nothing more than Easter Armas’s determination that no one living with AIDS should live with hunger. She saw an acquaintance of hers, a brilliant lawyer who had lost his job because he was HIV-positive, eating from a dumpster. She was devastated.
November 19, 1989 marked the first of many Easter’s Sundays, monthly dinners held at McLaren House for people living with HIV/AIDS. Each meal was lovingly prepared by volunteers, and there was often entertainment. Easter’s Sundays aimed to diminish the isolation felt by people with AIDS by providing food, community, and comfort. From the determination of one woman and her tireless friends, the Vancouver Meals Society was born. It was the first meal program in Canada to provide free meals for people living with HIV/AIDS. They had five clients.
In 1994, the Vancouver Meals Society was re-named A Loving Spoonful. Our clients now include more than 250 adults and children in Greater Vancouver.
