Meet Our Members: Lifelong AIDS Alliance & Chicken Soup Brigade

Last summer, Lifelong Aids Alliance food production and grocery packaging facility relocated to a new Meal Production Center in Georgetown, a neighborhood south of downtown Seattle.  This new location will allow Lifelong to increase their ability to produce 450,000 meals and 70,000 grocery bags within five years.  The new space increased the square footage of their kitchen by 250%.  With generous donations from many donors they were also able to buy new kitchen equipment such as large mixers, baking pans, bowls and utensils.  The move was made possible by a $500,000 challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  An additional $1.5 million was raised to match this grant from generous foundations and donors.

The new space also includes a bright, colorful warehouse which is large enough to distribute 1.5 million pounds of food per year.  Their walk in food bank remains located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.  Chicken Soup Brigade’s (LLAA food program name) clients have specific health challenges, such as HIV, diabetes, kidney disease, cancers, or disabling arthritis. Most are living below the Federal Poverty Level, and all require assistance in managing their nutritional health. Chicken Soup offers a comprehensive food and nutrition program designed not only to feed people but to nourish them.  Their motto that Food Is Medicine is enforced in the quality food programming they offer. 

Grocery Program: Bags of groceries include dairy and meats, fresh produce, a variety of easily prepared comfort foods, and tasty snacks. Last year, Chicken Soup Brigade provided food and nutrition services to 1,591 people in the Puget Sound region. They distributed 36,330 grocery bags and served 149,872 meals.

Meal Program: Homemade meals are prepared in their kitchen, and then are frozen for convenient reheating by their clients at a later time.  Most meals meet the nutritional guidelines of the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association. Specialized meals meeting diets such as vegetarian, no gluten/no dairy or easy digestion are available. (To be eligible to receive these services, a client must be living with a chronic medical condition and meet some other specific criteria.)

They hope to in the near future create a community kitchen, which would increase access to healthy food by giving people the space, equipment, and help required to prepare nutritious meals.