Honoring World AIDS Day with Rosie Perez

On World AIDS Day 2025, actress and activist Rosie Perez reflected on the ongoing impact of HIV/AIDS and the essential role God’s Love We Deliver continues to play in supporting New Yorkers living with the disease.

Perez’s connection to the cause is deeply personal. Growing up in Brooklyn, she faced food insecurity firsthand. Later, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic devastated her community, she lost friends and loved ones to AIDS-related complications. She witnessed the fear, stigma, and misunderstanding surrounding the disease and promised herself she would help however she could.

That commitment is what drew her to God’s Love We Deliver, an organization founded in 1985 at the height of the AIDS crisis. What began as a small volunteer effort to bring meals to those who were sick and isolated has grown into a vital lifeline for thousands of New Yorkers affected by serious illnesses, including HIV.

For Perez, God’s Love embodies dignity and compassion. “Food isn’t just food—it’s care,” she says. It’s a message she believes is especially important on World AIDS Day, a time when the world pauses to honor those lost, support those living with HIV, and continue the fight to end stigma.

Last year alone, God’s Love We Deliver cooked, packaged, and home-delivered 614,727 medically tailored meals to 1,233 people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS—a level of impact Perez calls “love in action.” The organization now delivers 15,000 meals every day, ensuring that no one battling illness has to face it alone.

To mark World AIDS Day this year, Perez joined volunteers in the kitchen, witnessing firsthand the compassion and commitment that have defined the organization for 40 years. She emphasized that while progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, support for those living with the disease remains as urgent as ever.

Perez is urging supporters to contribute what they can—particularly because donations made during Giving Tuesday are matched up to $100,000, doubling their impact and allowing God’s Love to reach even more people in need.

“Hunger doesn’t wait. Illness doesn’t wait,” she reminds us. On a day dedicated to remembrance, awareness, and action, Perez is calling on all of us to stand with those affected by HIV/AIDS and to ensure that compassion continues to be delivered, one meal at a time.