Kaiser Grants Go to AIDS Service Groups

Five area nonprofit HIV/AIDS service groups were awarded a total of $22,000 in grant funds from Kaiser Permanente.

The grants were awarded recently to organizations working to provide untraditional services to the city’s AIDS population, estimated at about 9,000. Such services include home delivery of food to AIDS patients too sick to leave their beds, emotional support, legal and benefits counseling, and transportation and housing assistance.

John Gile’s group, Project Angel Food, Hollywood, delivers meals to the homes of 600 AIDS patients who are too weak to prepare food for themselves. About 120 of their clients reside in the San Fernando Valley. The group received a $4,000 community service fund grant through the program this year.

“We greatly depend on these grants,” said Gile, who noted that Project Angel Food obtains 95% of its funding from private and corporate sources. The other 5% comes from federal funds.

Other area agencies awarded grants from Kaiser Permanente this year include: the Homestead Hospice and Shelter, which received nearly $7,700 to provide shelter for AIDS patients in areas including Van Nuys and West Hills; AIDS Care Inc., Ventura County, which received $2,667 to provide social services to those affected by AIDS; the Los Angeles Shanti Foundation, Hollywood, which benefited from a $5,200 grant to provide counseling and HIV/AIDS education, and Positive Friends for Life, a group that works in the Los Angeles area to counter the social isolation of heterosexuals infected with HIV/AIDS, received $2,500.