In 1985, a woman named Ganga Stone was volunteering at Cabrini Hospice on the Lower East Side when she met a man named Richard Sale.[1] He had AIDS. He was homebound, too sick to cook or shop, and he was hungry. She asked what he needed. He said food. She got on her bicycle and brought him a meal.
That was the beginning. Not a grant. Not a government program. Not a strategic plan. A bicycle and a meal and a woman who understood that dignity requires nourishment.
The Beginning
New York City in 1985 was at the epicenter of the AIDS crisis. Gay men were dying in numbers that staggered the city’s hospitals and morgues.[3] The Reagan administration was largely silent. The mainstream press was catching up slowly. And in Greenwich Village — the heart of New York’s gay community — neighbors were watching neighbors disappear.
Ganga Stone, a hospice volunteer and spiritual teacher, saw a gap that no institution was filling. People with AIDS were too sick to prepare food, too isolated to shop, and often too poor to afford nutritious meals even when they could. Malnutrition was accelerating their decline. AIDS wasting syndrome — the severe, involuntary weight loss that accompanied advanced AIDS — was killing people who might otherwise have had more time.
Stone — joined almost immediately by her roommate and co-founder Jane Ellen Best — founded God’s Love We Deliver in 1985 with a simple and radical premise: medically tailored meals, delivered to the homes of people with AIDS, free of charge, no questions asked.[1] The name came from a conversation on the street: as Stone was walking with an armful of groceries to a client’s apartment, a minister stopped her and asked what she was doing. When she explained, he said, “You’re not just delivering food — you’re delivering God’s love.”[1]
What Was Happening in 1985
When God’s Love We Deliver was founded, the CDC had only named AIDS four years earlier. There was no effective treatment. Rock Hudson had just become the first major celebrity to publicly disclose an AIDS diagnosis, shocking a country that had been ignoring the epidemic. In New York City alone, thousands were already dead, and thousands more were dying.[8] The city’s social services infrastructure was overwhelmed and largely unprepared for the scale of what was coming.
What began as two women on bicycles quickly grew. Volunteers joined. Donations came in. A kitchen was established. By the late 1980s, God’s Love We Deliver was serving hundreds of clients a week, relying on an army of volunteers and a kitchen operation that expanded to meet an impossible need.
The organization survived the worst years of the epidemic, adapted as AIDS medications improved and survival rates changed, and eventually expanded its mission beyond HIV/AIDS to serve anyone in New York City living with a serious illness — cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis. But HIV/AIDS remains central to its history and its identity.
“We believe that food is medicine — that a nutritious, medically tailored meal is not a luxury but a necessity for people who are seriously ill.”— God’s Love We Deliver
How It Works Today
God’s Love We Deliver operates out of a state-of-the-art facility in SoHo, New York City — a building expanded in 2015 with a landmark $5 million lead gift from designer and longtime board member Michael Kors.[5] Every meal is prepared fresh — never frozen — by a team of professional chefs and thousands of volunteers who show up each week to chop, cook, pack, and deliver.
The meals are medically tailored — designed by registered dietitians to meet the specific nutritional needs of each client’s diagnosis. A person living with HIV has different nutritional needs than someone undergoing chemotherapy. A client with kidney disease requires a different meal plan than someone with congestive heart failure. God’s Love accommodates more than 200 different diagnoses through medically tailored menus.[4]
Meals are delivered directly to clients’ homes across all five boroughs of New York City. There is no charge to clients. There are no income requirements. There is no paperwork to navigate. A referral from a medical provider is required, and then the meals begin.
By the Numbers
- Over 15,000 clients served annually across NYC’s five boroughs[4]
- More than 40 million meals prepared and delivered since 1985[4]
- More than 200 diagnoses accommodated through medically tailored menus
- Meals prepared fresh daily — never frozen or shelf-stable
- Over 10,000 volunteers contribute each year
- Operates 365 days a year — no holidays, no exceptions
Food as Medicine: Why It Matters for HIV
The phrase “food is medicine” can sound like a wellness platitude. For people living with HIV, it is a clinical reality.
HIV and its treatment place significant demands on the body. Antiretroviral therapy can affect metabolism, lipid levels, blood sugar, kidney function, and bone density.[9] Chronic inflammation — even in people who are virally suppressed — increases cardiovascular and metabolic risk. Nutritional deficiencies common in HIV infection include vitamin D, vitamin B12, zinc, and selenium, all of which affect immune function.
During the pre-treatment era, AIDS wasting syndrome was one of the most visible and devastating manifestations of advanced HIV disease. Severe malnutrition accelerated immune decline and shortened lives. Adequate nutrition was not supplemental care — it was survival.
Today, with effective ART, most people living with HIV can maintain healthy weight and nutritional status. But food insecurity remains a serious issue in the HIV community. Research consistently shows that food insecurity is associated with lower ART adherence, worse viral suppression, and higher rates of hospitalization.[6] A person who cannot reliably eat cannot reliably take their medications on schedule.
Food Insecurity & HIV: The Evidence
- People living with HIV who experience food insecurity are roughly twice as likely to miss ART doses[6]
- Food insecurity is associated with lower rates of viral suppression even after controlling for other factors
- Up to 50% of PLHIV in urban areas experience food insecurity
- Medically tailored meals have been shown to reduce hospitalizations and improve health outcomes[7]
Joan Rivers: A New Yorker Who Showed Up
Joan Rivers & God’s Love We Deliver
Joan Rivers was one of God’s Love We Deliver’s most devoted and longest-serving supporters. She joined the board of directors in 1991 and served until her death in September 2014 — twenty-three years of public advocacy and fundraising at a time when associating with AIDS causes still carried real social risk.[2]
Rivers was characteristically unapologetic about her involvement. She understood that AIDS was killing people she knew and loved, and she refused to look away. In an era when many celebrities quietly declined invitations to associate with HIV/AIDS organizations, Rivers showed up — loudly, repeatedly, and with her checkbook.
She hosted fundraising events, used her platform to draw attention to the organization’s work, and brought in donors from her extensive network in entertainment and fashion. Her involvement helped God’s Love We Deliver build relationships with New York’s philanthropic community at a critical time in the organization’s growth.
When Joan Rivers died in September 2014, God’s Love We Deliver mourned one of its great champions. The organization honored her memory publicly — a fitting tribute to a woman who understood that love, like a meal, is most meaningful when it is delivered.[2]
Rivers was not alone among celebrities who recognized God’s Love We Deliver as a cause worth championing. Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Kors, and many figures from New York’s fashion, entertainment, and media worlds have supported the organization over the years. Michael Kors in particular has been a major long-term donor and board member; his $5 million lead gift helped make the organization’s SoHo headquarters expansion possible.[5]
The connection between New York’s creative and cultural communities and God’s Love We Deliver reflects something important about the AIDS crisis: it was a crisis that hit the arts, fashion, entertainment, and theater worlds with particular force. The people who built those worlds — and the people who loved them — showed up for the response.
Four Decades in New York City
The National Network: Organizations Feeding People with HIV
God’s Love We Deliver inspired a national movement. Across the country, organizations have built meal programs specifically for people living with HIV and other serious illnesses. Many are members of the Food Is Medicine Coalition, which advocates for medically tailored meals as a covered healthcare benefit.
Here are some of the most significant organizations in this network:
How to Help — and How to Get Help
If You Need Meals
If you are living with HIV or another serious illness in New York City and need home-delivered meals, contact God’s Love We Deliver directly at (212) 294-8100 or visit glwd.org. A referral from a healthcare provider is required. There is no cost and no income requirement.
Outside New York, search for your local medically tailored meal program through the Food Is Medicine Coalition or contact your HIV care provider for referrals to local food assistance programs.
If You Want to Volunteer or Donate
- God’s Love We Deliver: Volunteers cook and deliver meals weekdays and some weekends. glwd.org/volunteer
- Open Arms: Minnesota-based volunteers and donors. openarms.org
- Project Angel Food: Los Angeles volunteers and donors. projectangelfood.org
- Moveable Feast: Maryland volunteers and donors. moveablefeast.org
One meal at a time, for forty years.
Ganga Stone got on her bicycle in 1985 and delivered a meal to a man who was hungry and dying. That act of grace became an institution, a movement, and a model for how communities respond when governments fail.[10] The work continues — in New York, in Minneapolis, in Los Angeles, in Baltimore, in cities across the country. You can be part of it.
Visit God’s Love We Deliver →References & Sources
- God’s Love We Deliver. “Our History.” Retrieved 2026. glwd.org/about-us/history/ (Cabrini Hospice origin; Richard Sale as first client; Jane Ellen Best as co-founder; minister “delivering God’s love” naming story). ↩
- God’s Love We Deliver. “Joan Rivers — Forever in Our Hearts.” Board tenure 1991–2014. glwd.org/blog/joan-rivers-forever-in-our-hearts/. ↩
- CDC. “HIV Basics: About HIV.” Updated 2024. cdc.gov/hiv/basics/whatishiv.html. ↩
- God’s Love We Deliver. “Our Impact.” Retrieved 2026. glwd.org/about-us/our-impact/ (40 million+ meals delivered since 1985; 15,000+ clients served annually; 200+ diagnoses accommodated). ↩
- amNewYork. “God’s Love gets a facelift as Rivers, Kors pitch in.” On Michael Kors’ $5 million lead gift to the SoHo facility expansion. amny.com — god’s love gets a facelift. ↩
- Weiser SD, et al. “Food insecurity is associated with incomplete HIV RNA suppression among homeless and marginally housed HIV-infected individuals in San Francisco.” Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2009. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19797836/. ↩
- Berkowitz SA, et al. “Medically Tailored Meal Delivery for Diabetes Patients With Food Insecurity: A Randomized Cross-over Trial” and Food Is Medicine Coalition reduced-hospitalization evidence. Journal of General Internal Medicine / Health Affairs, 2018–2019. foodismedicinecoalition.org/research/. ↩
- Kaiser Family Foundation. “The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the United States: The Basics.” Fact sheet on HIV in the US. kff.org — HIV/AIDS in the US. ↩
- HIV.gov. “Nutrition and HIV.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. hiv.gov — nutrition and HIV. ↩
- Charity Navigator. “God’s Love We Deliver — four-star rating profile.” EIN 13-3366571. charitynavigator.org/ein/133366571. ↩