SEATTLE — Nutritious food, straight to your doorstep.
That is the goal of the Chicken Soup Brigade, a coalition of Seattle locals that's spent decades preparing and delivering comforting meals to the homes of Washingtonians living with HIV and AIDS.
The brigade is under the umbrella of Lifelong, a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to serve people with chronic illnesses.
"People might have to decide between being able to pay for their medications or pay for food," said Emily Hanning, Lifelong's vice president of food and nutrition.
As December 1 is World AIDS Day, the group's leaders are helping to highlight a need they say is growing.
"We still have a wait list of over 400 people in our community," said Hanning.
Currently in Washington, there are about 15,000 people living with HIV. She said in these inflationary times, the community's dependence on their services has grown.
"We deliver meals in groups of seven or 14 a week," said Hanning. "We're also seeing more and more people in our community reaching out in need of food and nutritional support than we have in past years."
While drug treatments have slowed the progression of HIV, the virus can still lead to a life marked by loneliness.
"During COVID, and I think even today for some of our clients, our delivery driver is the only person that they'll encounter in that week," said Hanning.
She said they consistently rotate the offerings on their menu to "try to keep things interesting" for the clients.
She added, "A good portion of our clients are homebound." A lack of transportation, she said, is often a barrier for clients when it comes to accessing nutritious meals.
"Here we've got some East African bags, some Latinx bags, and we try to kind of make sure that we're providing food that would be culturally appropriate for the folks we're serving," said Hanning.
The Chicken Soup Brigade started in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood in the early 1980s, when attendees of "Gay Bingo" events and drag queens were among the first kind-hearted Washingtonians to launch the effort in response to a growing AIDS epidemic.
AIDS case numbers declined in the mid-1990s and since have stabilized, but there are still more than a million Americans living with HIV.
Lifelong's Hanning said today's economy also makes things challenging for them as a nonprofit.
"There's a lot of uncertainty right now and a lot of need in our community, and so we're hoping that the community will step up to support us for Giving Tuesday, then go to Lifelong.org and find more information," she said.
Hanning continued, "We're always open for more volunteers, but I think one of the bigger challenges is funding for actually purchasing the food that would go into our meals or groceries. Costs continue to rise for us, as well."