God’s Love We Deliver started in 1985, when Ganga Stone biked over a couple bags of groceries to a friend living with HIV/AIDS. When she realized that he needed more than raw ingredients, she founded God’s Love — an organization that tailors nutritious, health-promoting meals for people living with serious illnesses. On today’s Eating Matters episode—the second installment of the “Prescribing Food” series—the organization’s Director of Policy and Planning Alissa Wassung joins assistant producer Talia Ralph, along with Sarah, a client of God’s Love. The conversation spans how their client base has grown and changed to what progressive policies are happening in New York state to make these kinds of services easier to access. “Food is love,” is one of GLWD’s central tenets, but it is also a powerful tool to make people’s lives easier and healthier as they face cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other serious illnesses. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.

“Back in 2001 we actually expanded our mission to serve people living with all severe illnesses: cancer, MS, Alzheimer’s, etc. The reason we did that is that we had learned so much about treating illness with nutrition with our work with the HIV/AIDS community that we had clients calling us up saying ‘my friend has cancer, can you help them?’ and of course we couldn’t say anything but ‘yes.'” [4:09]

“We believe that being sick and hungry is a crisis that demands urgent response… We never charge clients for their meals and we will never have a waiting list. ” [5:26]

—Alissa Wassung on Eating Matters