Maryland: A Day Off Becomes a Day of Charity

On Christmas Day, volunteers from Temple Beth El in Baltimore County, Md., packed and delivered meals for Moveable Feast so that regular volunteers could spend Christmas with their families. Moveable Feast, started in one man's kitchen in 1989, is a nonprofit outreach group that provides meals and groceries for 600 poor, homebound HIV/AIDS patients in the Baltimore and Eastern Shore areas. Volunteers come in daily to pick up groceries, a week's worth of freshly prepared meals, and items such as toothpaste and sport drinks to deliver to Moveable Feast's clientele.

"I come out to help people that are unable to take care of themselves," said Fran Berkowitz. "I go to shul on Saturday and pray some day these people will be able to take care of themselves."

On Christmas, volunteers brought wrapped gifts for patients with young children, a reminder of the changing face of AIDS. Moveable Feast Director Vic Basile noted that while AIDS was once a disease found mainly among white men, 40 percent of the charity's clients are now women. Most are African American, and many have children.

The shut-ins the organization serves rely on the meals the volunteers bring, as well on as their kindness. "Without them, I don't know what I'd do," said Brian Cox, 42, who has been HIV-positive for twenty years, "because they provide such good food, and they really care. Without them, I wouldn't have lived this long."

After the Temple Beth El volunteers visited more than 200 shut-ins, they moved on to Hope Lodge, a home run by the American Cancer Society, to prepare Christmas dinner for its residents. "We feel that we know a little bit about the needs of the people," said Stan Schneider, a volunteer whose son died of AIDS 12 years ago. "He would have helped if he were here."

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