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A Loving Spoonful
By Nicole Zummach
April 23, 2007
VANCOUVER, BC // The year was 1991. A decade had passed since the world first heard of the deadly disease known as AIDS. Awareness campaigns were everywhere, everyone knew how AIDS could be contracted, and medical researchers worked tirelessly to develop drugs to combat symptoms. Those drugs helped people with HIV/AIDS live longer than they otherwise might, but that didn't necessarily improve their quality of life. Many AIDS sufferers were housebound and couldn't work. No income often meant no access to fresh, nutritious food, something they desperately needed. That's when A Loving Spoonful was created, and the small, grassroots organization has been delivering meals to people living with HIV/AIDSin the Greater Vancouver Area ever since.
Today, A Loving Spoonful is a well-respected and well-recognized agency in Vancouver. And as a further testament to the important work it is doing, it has twice received the Donner Award for Excellence in the Provision of Basic Necessities. CharityVillage spoke with executive director Catherine Ewing about the evolution of the organization, the biggest challenges it faces, and where it is heading in the years to come.
CharityVillage: A Loving Spoonful has been around since 1991 and obviously the need for your services isn't declining. What is the situation right now?

Catherine Ewing: One of the things that is really interesting for us, where we are expanding, is working with families - immigrant families and local families. These are families where one or both parents have HIV/AIDS and can't make a living anymore but have three or four or five kids. So we are working a lot with those families. Our resources are very stretched at the moment so we have to pick and choose who we can put on service. Unfortunately, we have a family waiting right now that has got a large number of children. We have them on hold at the moment because we just can't afford to put them onto service and make sure we can deliver to them.
One of our biggest problems right now is with drivers. We would like to expand out into some of the other areas [around Vancouver] because there is a huge need out there. But our drivers are all volunteers, and with the gas prices being what they are right now, there are a lot of people who don't want to commit to doing that every week. Especially coming all the way into Vancouver and loading up and then having to go all the way back out there; it's asking a lot of someone.
Another thing we do is provide formula for mothers who are HIV positive and who are falling between the cracks for the first year of their baby's life. Unfortunately, there are way, way too many of them. You know, it amazes me that we have a government that will look after a mother's antiretroviral drugs while she is pregnant so that the baby doesn't get the virus, but then won't do anything about providing formula for the first year of the child's life.
CV: Do you do any advocacy work or lobbying of government?

CE: We are involved with groups that do, but we don't [lobby] directly, mainly because we are a very small, grassroots organization. There are only three full-time staff here. With one of us looking after volunteers, one looking after delivery and clients, and me trying to oversee all of it and raise money, there aren't enough hours in the day to pack it all in. We would love to, but there is a fabulous organization that does do lobbying for this kind of thing and that's one of the reasons we are able to keep going.
CV: So you work closely with other organizations?

CE: Oh, absolutely. We couldn't do it without that kind of camaraderie. In Vancouver, there is an amazing group of organizations that get together once a month. I don't think it necessarily makes a difference to how we do things individually as organizations, but it's a support. We are really lucky to have the people we do have in Vancouver.
CV: Has there ever been talk of your organization branching out or replicating in other areas?

CE: Sure, but as much as we would love to do that, it would mean a capital campaign. We have a dream of our own kitchen, of doing our own food and being able to deliver fresh meals three or four times a week, rather than frozen meals. Frozen meals are great, but it would be really nice for us to be able to concentrate a lot more on the nutritional end of it and have fresh vegetables and fruit going out every couple of days instead of weekly deliveries. So absolutely, we would love to grow but it is going to take a capital campaign and a whole shift of mindset for all of us to get there, and a shift in community perception of what we are doing.
CV: And what is the community's current perception of the work you do?

CE: I think if you asked five people out in the community, you would get five different responses. We do a lot in the West End, of course, but the infection rate for HIV/AIDS has shifted dramatically in the last five or ten years to the Downtown Eastside. I think that it is shifting again, certainly to a population where families are a lot more affected by it now than they were even two years ago. And it's showing up a lot more in the suburbs than it ever did before. It's just one of those things that is constantly evolving and we would like to be in a position to answer the need.
But it's not sexy anymore. It's not the 'in' disease anymore, so I don't know that the public realizes how bad it is in their own communities. There is still a huge stigma around it and it embarrasses people to talk about it.
CV: Despite the inherent obstacles, you're obviously doing something right because you have received the Donner Award twice for excellence in the provision of basic necessities.

CE: I think a lot of that has to do with staffing and administrative costs. That is something we have managed to really keep to a minimum. Around 85% of all money raised goes directly to program costs and that is where we strive to keep it. I think a lot of people could learn from A Loving Spoonful. It's an amazing organization and it has always had an amazing volunteer response. There are people from all walks of life that want to volunteer here. I guess that is part of the reason we can keep our overhead as low as we do. We have such a good reputation in the community and that goes a long way to having people want to come and play. It's all about building relationships. As long as you have a good relationship with your volunteers, your board, your drivers, and all the rest of it, they will keep coming back.
CV: What does it take to run a small, successful nonprofit organization like yours? What is the key?

CE: A lot of hours and a lot of heart...and not being in it for the money. The people that are here, the staff that are here, do this because they love what they are doing and not because of the money, let me tell you! It's the environment that we have created here as well. We have a lot of fun. Our clients know that they can come in and kick their shoes off and sit and talk for a while. They're not going to be rushed out. I think they know there will always be a hug available to them and a box of Kleenex. That is a huge part of why we can do what we can do. And I think that's what attracts volunteers as well. If I had to sum it up, I think I would say that there is always that underlying respect for every human being that walks through our doors. That is the bottom line of why we do what we do.
Catherine Ewing is the executive director of A Loving Spoonful. Previously, she served as the executive director of the Vancouver AIDS Memorial Society and has been a long-time volunteer within the AIDS community.