Proudly Making a Difference, One Meal at a Time

Dear Community,

June – Pride Month – is usually a time of immense joy at God’s Love We Deliver. We take the month to reflect on Pride, and we observe how far we have come as a community. We remember our history of activism and achievement, and we celebrate our future. We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to those living with HIV, to diversity, to LGBTQ+ rights, and to our entire community. In the 80’s, we yelled Silence Equals Death. We spoke out then, and we will speak out now. Black Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter.

This year, our celebration will be changed, because of COVID-19 and our society’s long-overdue reckoning with the systemic racism that plagues our country. Many of our friends are back in the streets marching and protesting for justice. Many of us, for any number of reasons, cannot be in the streets and are supporting from home. But our solidarity and strength have always existed in more than a physical space or gathering. They live in the affirmation that we will continue to work against racial injustice, against homophobia, against inequity, and against transphobia long past this season of unrest. We commit to doing this loudly, and, as such, we have joined hundreds of LGBTQ organizations uniting to combat racial violence.

God’s Love We Deliver was founded in 1985 at the height of the AIDS pandemic. Many of our clients then – homebound individuals living with HIV/AIDS – were living alone, facing stigma, illness, and hunger. In those early years, when many were shunned by others, we brought food and love to our neighbors, friends, family members and total strangers who were dying of this disease. In 2020, so much has changed, as we now cook and deliver more than 50,000 medically tailored meals every week to a diverse population of clients living with more than 200 different diagnoses. Our work is justice work every day, and it is not complete. As we continue to examine our biases, we commit to dismantling systemic racism and to fight even harder for justice and equality.

In this spirit of greater inclusion, we will be changing our pride flag to the “Progress Pride Flag” designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018, which includes Black, Brown and Trans colors. We acknowledge that Black, Brown and Trans voices have been leaders in this movement from the very beginning and have, for far too long, been left out of the narrative. We also know that a flag is merely a symbol, and this change is symbolic of a commitment to prioritize Black, Brown and Trans voices in everything we do. We pledge to continue to learn, grow, and correct our mistakes.

We also promise, that as much as things change, our mission to provide every person on our program with beautiful, nutritious meals, cooked and home-delivered with love will not.

We are facing a healthcare pandemic, great social unrest, and the need for profound societal changes. As we race to meet the needs of thousands of people who need our program, we do so with the caring and loving support from people like you.

Proudly, we are making a difference, one meal at a time.