Celebrating 40 Years of Nourishing New York

A Letter from our President & CEO, Terrence Meck

This past year was defined by an unwavering commitment to the people we serve. Every meal cooked, every delivery made, every moment of care shared was a reminder of what makes this organization so extraordinary. Food Is Love. And Food Is Medicine.

In addition to honoring 40 years of nourishing New York, this year’s most exciting milestone was the opening of our new Distribution Center at Liberty BKLYN. This expansion is far more than additional space. It is a promise that we will continue to grow with intention and build the infrastructure needed for the next chapter of our work. This was made possible by the leadership of our 40 FORWARD Campaign and the generosity of so many who believe in our mission.

And while we continue building for the future, our commitment to those we serve today has never been stronger. In 2025, we expanded our reach to U.S. Military Veterans and their caregivers through our CONNECTED program, and to more Medicaid recipients through New York State’s 1115 Waiver. These milestones matter, but what matters most is who they represent. Behind every number is a person, someone facing illness who can count on us not just for a meal, but for dignity, care, and compassion.

This year, we also refined our mission statement to more clearly reflect who we are and what we do:

Founded in 1985 at the height of the AIDS pandemic, God’s Love We Deliver improves the health and well-being of people affected by life-altering illnesses. We provide medically tailored meals and comprehensive nutrition care and education at no cost to those we serve, always delivered with love.

Thank you for being part of this inspiring community and for fueling our work.

The past 40 years have shown us what is possible. The future calls us to do even more. And together, we will define what comes next.

With love and gratitude,
Terrence Meck
President & CEO

Richard is living with both cancer and type 1 diabetes. A Veteran of the Air Force who served two tours during the Vietnam War, he is supported every step of the way by his wife and caregiver, Marie.

After being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of bladder cancer, Richard underwent treatment that put his cancer into remission, but left him with type 1 diabetes after damage to his pancreas. Following his diagnosis, his oncology dietitian recommended medically tailored meals from God’s Love We Deliver.

God’s Love We Deliver Registered Dietitian Nutritionists carefully prepare meals designed to meet Richard’s complex medical needs, helping him manage his diabetes while continuing to recover from cancer treatment.

By Lisa Zullig, MS, RDN, CSG, CDN
Director of Nutrition Services

A major accomplishment in 2025 was the integration of new dietetic clients referred through the 1115 Medicaid Waiver. This increased access to food and nutrition services for a Medicaid population not previously served, while also creating a pathway for God’s Love to expand into the prevention sphere.

Under the Waiver, we offer a series of nutrition interventions, including stand-alone nutrition counseling and education, medically tailored meals (MTM), and medically tailored groceries (MTG). Clients who are referred to nutrition counseling and education have the opportunity to work with our Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) towards
nutrition goals.

Supporting clients who are ready to transition off the medically tailored meal program is a challenge that we addressed in 2025 with the formation of the Health Harvest program. This program focuses on clients who report improved health through our MTM program, and who now have the ability and desire to cook for themselves. Participants who transition off the meal program receive a weekly box of fresh produce and groceries delivered by our partner, Farm to People. Along with these items, clients have the support of our RDNs and a library of nutrition education materials to assist clients as they learn to prepare healthy meals for themselves.

Also in 2025, we began to use the HIPAA-compliant Blooming Health platform to communicate with clients via text and email, resulting in significant improvements to client engagement via secure, confidential texting while prioritizing those in greatest need.

By Dorothy Auer: Head Chef

In 2025, the kitchen at God’s Love We Deliver was able to scale production and meet growing demand while maintaining quality, consistency, and nutrition standards.

One of our biggest challenges was managing supply fluctuations and staffing while significantly increasing output across multiple meal programs. We are happy to report that our team delivered incredible results. Highlights for the year included preparation of 12,600 Thanksgiving meals and 6,500 Winter Feast meals. We celebrated our 40th anniversary with a milestone of 40 million meals cooked, and delivered over 7,000 personalized birthday cakes. We also doubled our dessert production and expanded our menu with new salads, entrées, and soup recipes to better serve our clients’ needs.

One moment that stands out was seeing the team come together during the holiday season during which we are producing thousands of holiday meals at the same time we’re producing our regular schedule of meals. High client demand meant long hours and high production volume, but everyone stayed focused and committed to ensuring each meal met
our standards. It really reflected the dedication, and heart, of the kitchen staff and volunteers.

Looking ahead, we’re focused on continuing to grow our capacity while innovating our menus and strengthening operational efficiency. We’re also excited to introduce a new volunteer opportunity: the Kitchen Volunteer Captain program. This is a key volunteer leadership role in our kitchen and packing areas that will help guide fellow volunteers and support smooth daily operations.

By Brian Thompson: Manager of Volunteer Services

Volunteers make our work possible, and in January 2025, our volunteer community joined God’s Love We Deliver at a new Volunteer Center hosted by our friends at City Harvest. For nine months, 760 unique volunteers filled more than 2,200 volunteer slots, building a strong foundation of community engagement in Brooklyn while providing urgent support for our Meal Fulfillment team, and strengthening daily distribution workflows.

In October 2025, volunteer operations transitioned from City Harvest to our new Meal Distribution Center at Liberty BKLYN. The move required careful planning and focused recruitment to quickly fill shifts at the new site. Within a few short months, Liberty BKLYN had already welcomed more than 1,200 unique volunteers who filled over 2,000 shifts. Our community rallied around this new space! Approximately 40% of Liberty BKLYN shifts were filled by returning volunteers, signaling strong early retention and a meaningful volunteer experience.

Liberty BKLYN allows us to connect local volunteers with the broader borough and with communities beyond Manhattan, making the experience more personal, and reinforcing the impact of their work. Our dedicated crew of Brooklyn-based volunteers shows that this space is more than just a place to give time; it is a place to connect. On several occasions, volunteers have met new neighbors or reconnected with people they had crossed paths with earlier in life, rekindling friendships and spreading love.

As always, our volunteers play an essential role in nourishing our clients. Thank you to all our volunteers for your commitment! Looking ahead, in 2026, we will continue expanding volunteer engagement across all three of our volunteer locations: Liberty BKLYN, the Michael Kors Building, and Northern Dispensary. We will also build stronger connections with local businesses, organizations, healthcare facilities, churches, schools, and community centers to involve more neighbors in our mission.

By Julia Berenson: Director of Philanthropy, Institutional Giving

In 2025, a year marked by funders’ shifting priorities and our own expanding operations, our corporate and foundation partners offered an astounding $4.8 million in program support, and nearly 20,000 volunteers, ensuring that God’s Love We Deliver remained well-resourced, well-partnered, and ready to grow.

Our community of 400 institutional funders represents a diverse, cross-sector funding base that provides stability when any single area of philanthropy shifts. Diverse partnerships also help send a signal of credibility when funders across industries invest in the same model. In 2025, that model—medically tailored meals as an evidence-based driver of health outcomes—continued to attract new supporters while strengthening the commitment of longtime partners.

We welcomed several significant new funders this year. DAV Charitable Service Trust made its first investment in God’s Love, supporting our work with U.S. Military Veterans. March Forth Foundation and Monarch Foundation brought new philanthropic relationships that expand our reach and reinforce our equity commitments. Genmab joined as a corporate partner, reflecting a broader trend of health-focused companies aligning with Food Is Medicine as both policy and practice.

The deeper value of corporate engagement extends beyond the transactional. Companies that send employees to pack meals, sponsor a gala, or fund a program don’t stay at arm’s length. Volunteers become donors, sponsors become multi-year partners, and advocates carry our mission into boardrooms and giving committees. God’s Love offers something few organizations can: a visceral, hands-on experience of mission in action. That experience builds the kind of commitment that sustains organizations.

Looking ahead, our team will pursue partnerships that reflect emerging programmatic priorities including Veterans’ health, maternal health, and nutrition research, helping to position God’s Love as a leader in evidence-based, community-centered care.

As corporate giving strategies increasingly emphasize employee engagement, health equity, and community impact, God’s Love is exceptionally well-positioned to meet companies where their priorities are—and bring them deeper into ours.

By Gabriel Benitez Lipperheide: Vice President, Operations

In 2025, our Operations team focused on strengthening the operational infrastructure needed to support our next stage of growth. As our services and clientele have expanded, our
legacy processes and systems have struggled to keep pace with the complexity and volume of our work. Our top priority in 2025 was launching the development of a new demand planning inventory system, a foundational tool designed to help us forecast needs more accurately, reduce waste, and scale our programs with confidence.

Throughout 2025, we mapped workflows, identified bottlenecks, and designed a system that integrates data from across departments. This effort required close collaboration with program teams, finance, and technology partners to ensure the solution reflects real-world needs.

By investing in new infrastructure, we improved meal production and distribution. Meal production is more tightly timed to drivers’ distribution schedules, contributing to better utilization of existing storage space as well as greater accuracy of meal shipments between distribution sites, including our new Distribution Center at Liberty BKLYN. These initial successes help set the stage for more efficient operations, better resource allocation, and stronger alignment across the organization.

By Candy Yun: Director of Events

In 2025 we saw our beloved community turn out like never before to support our clients affected by illness. In May, we launched our year-long 40th Anniversary celebration with a block party hosted by Heermance Farm, sponsored by William Gottlieb Real Estate. The event featured a special performance by our dear friend Peppermint and united more than 400 staff, volunteers, executive leadership, donors, and community leaders in a joyful celebration honoring four decades of nourishing New Yorkers.

Our 9th Annual Love Rocks NYC concert was honored with an iconic performance by Cher, who also visited the God’s Love kitchen to personally thank volunteers and spotlight the transformative power of giving back.

Our younger supporters as well showed up to share in the celebrations. We produced the 3rd Annual Young Hearts Friend Fest, hosted by Nicky and Paris Hilton. A standout moment featured Paris Hilton DJ-ing at the Sprinkle Pool, drawing heightened visibility to our mission and the importance of engaging children in philanthropy through the Young Hearts program.