We are so excited to grow into this second space, The Northern Dispensary, in addition to our our beloved 6-story Michael Kors headquarters in SoHo.
God’s Love We Deliver got started 37 years ago, in 1985, at the height of the AIDS pandemic. At a time of great fear and stigma, we showed up; we were the only ones feeding people living with HIV. We applied all that we learned from those early, painful years, and now we serve people living with more than 200+ diagnoses, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, renal failure, heart disease, advanced diabetes, and yes, HIV.
As COVID hit, we continued to show up, through another pandemic rife with fear and isolation. In the first weekend when everything in the City shut down, we received 3,500 phone calls for help. At its height, we had a 30% increase in demand. I am so proud of our staff and volunteers who stepped up to ensure that we were able to cook and package every day and never missed one delivery.
Over the past two years we have not rested on our laurels. We have not only survived, but we have thrived.
Last year, we cooked, packaged, and home-delivered more than 2.8 million meals, an agency record.
We continued to innovate. Just two examples – we launched Healthy Starts, a program addressing gestational diabetes, and Connected, a program providing food and nutrition for US military veterans living with mental health challenges.
As we have experienced this phenomenal growth, we have had to grow our staff to support the increased number of clients we serve – and that’s what brings us to Northern Dispensary.