About A Loving Spoonful
A Loving Spoonful: Providing free, nutritious meals to those living with HIV in Metro Vancouver to enhance their quality of life and health and reduce barriers to food security.
Every week, all year round, since 1989, our volunteer drivers use their own cars, gas and time to deliver frozen meals and groceries to individuals and families who are HIV+ and primarily homebound. Our average meal cost is only $4.89.
A Loving Spoonful is about food, love, hope and compassion. Our goal is to help those who need it most with nourishing meals, healthy grocery options and the support of a caring and dedicated team.
On average, we provide approximately 200,000 meals each year to those most vulnerable in the community, living with chronic, life threatening illness. Many of these individuals are isolated and dealing with multiple physical, mental and emotional challenges.
Our History
A Loving Spoonful started in 1989 from the determination of a wonderful individual named Easter Armas who championed the idea that no one living with AIDS should live with hunger. She saw an acquaintance of hers, a brilliant architect who had lost his job because he was HIV-positive, and had no choice but to look for food in a dumpster. Seeing this, she was devastated. November 19, 1989 marked the first of many Easter Sundays which were monthly dinners for people living with HIV/AIDS. Each meal was lovingly prepared by volunteers, and there was often entertainment. Easter Sundays aimed to diminish the isolation felt by people with AIDS by providing food, community, and comfort. From the fortitude of one woman and her tireless friends, the Vancouver Meals Society was born. It was the first meal program in Canada to provide free meals for people living with HIV/AIDS. They had five clients.
In 1994, the Vancouver Meals Society was officially re-named A Loving Spoonful Meals Society. In 2011 A Loving Spoonful moved to a new location doubling their space. In October 2023 A Loving Spoonful opened one of the largest commercial production kitchens in the Downtown Eastside allowing for increased capacity and additional programming.
Our Mission
A Loving Spoonful is a volunteer-driven, non-partisan, non-profit organization that provides free healthy meals and nutritional support to people living with a life-threatening illness, such as HIV/AIDS in Metro Vancouver. Our belief is by meeting this fundamental need, we improve our clients’ health and well-being, enabling them to focus on life’s other challenges.
A Loving Spoonful: Providing free, nutritious meals to those living with HIV and co-existing illnesses in Metro Vancouver to enhance their quality of life and health.
Access to nutritious food is essential for people living with HIV and co-existing illness. Many medications need to be taken with food and we know that medication and good food leads to better health outcomes.
Meet the dedicated team behind A Loving Spoonful, including five full-time staff and a volunteer Board of Directors. The Staff and Board work tirelessly to ensure the smooth operation and future strategic planning of the organization.