As advocates for people living with HIV, World AIDS Day is always a time to pause, to be still and to remember our heritage and history as medically tailored meal providers. Many FIMC agencies got their start at the height the AIDS pandemic in the mid-1980s when people were dying of AIDS, often alone or isolated. Add to this tragic situation the lack of medication or relief and the stigma and fear that surrounded the diagnosis, and you have the perfect recipe for a situation without hope.
The neighborhood volunteers at FIMC agencies prepared a different recipe in response. Many courageous hearts in communities across the country stepped into that gap and brought hope and dignity in the form of a meal and a smiling face. There was no cure or medicine yet, but meeting someone with a meal was something people to do, human-to-human, to stem the tide of that awful moment and deliver care.
Fast forward 30+ years past the advent of HIV medications, and FIMC agencies bring those same values into the service we continue to provide to people living with HIV (PLWH) and our expanded services to people living with all life-threatening illnesses, like cancer, cardiovascular disease, ALS, diabetes and many, many more. This day is a time to remember our roots and reconnect with our values – endured and renewed for new populations.
So much progress has been made in the treatment and care someone diagnosed with HIV can hope to receive, yet the epidemic is far from over. Individuals continue to face treatment access issues skewed by structural racism and the disproportionate effect of HIV on BIPOC communities. There is still only one dedicated federal stream of funding for services for PLWH – the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program – which has affected tremendous change but falls short of reaching all who need it. There is still no cure. We have work to do.
And FIMC agencies will do that work. From pandemic to pandemic, we have been and will be there to deliver the healing power of food to people who are sick and hungry. On World AIDS Day, as a community, we collectively renew our commitment to serving our neighbors in need and to advancing policies that expand access to these lifesaving services. Together, we look forward to a world without AIDS.
~Alissa Wassung, Executive Director, FIMC