Open Hand's Oakland Kitchen has Southern Flavor

In May, Project Open Hand opened a new kitchen in the California Hotel on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland. The nonprofit organization -- which Ruth Brinker started at Trinity Church in San Francisco in 1985, cooking for seven friends with AIDS -- has come a long way. It now serves 1,800 meals a day. The East Bay center serves people with HIV/AIDS and the homebound and hopes to serve lunches for seniors in the future. "The goal of this new facility is to feed as many people as possible," said Tom Nolan, Open Hand's executive director.

The facility's renovation took less than a year, with state-of-the-art equipment underwritten by Providian Financial, Macy's and Wells Fargo, among other donors. The fund-raising campaign for it, which has run for two years, is $150,000 short of the $800,000 cost. About a quarter of the organization's funds come from the federal government, under the Ryan White CARE Act, and 44 percent from individuals. The organization's annual budget is $9 million, of which about $800,000 pays for its East Bay operations. In May, Project Open Hand served its seven millionth meal in San Francisco and in Alameda County.

Chef Shelton Jackson, who learned his craft in Atlanta's five-star restaurants, has brought a Southern flair to the menus he draws up every six weeks. Dietary requirements of the 200 or so clients vary everyday depending on their health, and the crew usually makes 13 versions of the meals they cook every day. The program has added a new service for the homebound under age 60. People forced to stay at home because of breast cancer or arthritis, for example, and are confined to the house for a period, are eligible to apply for the daily meals, delivered free. Project Open Hand hopes to open its grocery, which is moving from Telegraph Ave., at the California Hotel in February or March of 2002.

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