Mama’s Kitchen just finished San Diego’s largest annual bake sale with its Mama’s Pies. Each pie sold allows Mama’s Kitchen to cook, prepare, and deliver 12 meals to homebound individuals with HIV, cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, or chronic kidney disease. This year, it sold 3,647 pies. Mama’s Kitchen CEO Alberto Cortés, who is retiring after 21 years under his leadership has grown Mama’s Kitchen from a $1.7 million to a $5.5 million nonprofit, expanding the organizations HIV-focused mission to serve San Diegans with other critical illnesses. Now, Mama’s Kitchen works with more than 350 healthcare providers throughout the county to serve and educate San Diegans with critical illnesses. In addition to the expansion of nutrition programs and services, Cortés also helped guide the organization’s shift to function under the paradigm of Food is Medicine.
Over the past 10 years, Mama’s Kitchen progressed from simply the provision of food to providing complex medically tailored nutrition. Cortés has collaborated with other nutrition delivery nonprofits across the country, positioning Mama’s Kitchen to become a founding member of the national Food is Medicine Coalition and California Food is Medicine Coalition.
Cortés said the pie sale is important to Mama’s Kitchen for two reasons.
“Obviously it is a fundraiser,” he said. “Our experience has been that it always provides a high level of visibility for the organization in the community. I am surprised at the number of people, when they ask me what I do, one of the most common responses I get is that we are the ones that sell the pies. The pies have contributed a lot of visibility to the organization. As a nonprofit that depends heavily on community support, one can never be too exposed. We have been doing this for nearly 20 years. It is an important event for Mama’s Kitchen.”
Going back to its beginnings, Cortés said Mama’s Kitchen was established in 1990 in response to the AIDS epidemic.
“We are talking about a time when there was huge stigma attached to HIV. There was the heavy, heavy impact of AIDS in our gay men’s community in an extremely sad and massive way,” he said. “For those of us who lived at that time in San Diego it was really challenging in many ways. It was responses like Mama’s Kitchen, established by Laurie Leonard and her mother, and a group of folks in the community who got together to take care of people with AIDS who were living by themselves and unable to take care of their nutritional needs.
Oftentimes, suffering from malnutrition because of their inability to take care of themselves, or have those folks be cared for by somebody. As important as the provision of nutrition, it was also a statement of somebody cares for you,” he continued. “People were often ostracized and abandoned by their own families. What we have done over the years has been more than about delivering food. It is about making a statement of affirmation to people who are often thin on support.”
Now, every year, Mama’s Kitchen commemorates World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, by recognizing and remembering those affected by AIDS, as well as the ongoing leadership efforts made to end the epidemic with its Tree of Life Ceremony. Cortés said the Tree of Life event began in 1991.
“It is an event where we commemorate World AIDS Day, and we look to memorialize folks who died of HIV/AIDS,” he said. “We look to acknowledge the work that has been done over the years looking at the epidemic from a global perspective. Create awareness that AIDS is not over and that there are still many people in our community who are living with HIV, facing many challenges. A person living with HIV today is still heavily dependent on the healthcare system to take care of them for them to stay alive and well. I feel it is important not to forget the history of the epidemic, how it started, the political environment in which it started, the neglect by some. And to acknowledge the work of many people that became part of the solution. Whose kindness, generosity, and expression of love made the difference in the lives of so many people in our communities.”
The Tree of Life Ceremony is on Friday, Dec. 1, at 6 p.m. at Village Hillcrest (2955 Fifth Ave., San Diego) and will include community recognition awards, special guest speakers, the tree lighting, and a candlelight vigil. On the Tree of life, you can place a heart ornament in memory of a loved one, in honor of a friend, or by writing a message of support. The paper hearts will be hung in the tree in the center of Village Hillcrest Plaza on the night of the event and will remain on display throughout the month of December.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/47Mdg1m.
