San Diego History

Mama's Day with Mama's Kitchen

Fundraising to Support AIDS Sufferers
By Mark S. Burgess
Posted on May 11 2005
Last updated Aug 07 2005

Mama's Day in 3D

San Diego restaurateurs gathered at the La Jolla Hyatt Regency on May 6th to fete the supporters of Mama’s Kitchen with the finest of their art for the 14th annual “Mama’s Day”. It was a celebration and a fundraiser for the work that Mama’s Kitchen does year round taking meals to mostly poor and shut-in AIDS patients.

In 1990, volunteers from the AIDS Assistance fund who ran a small grocery store, discovered that AIDS patients, depleted by the disease and the effects of medications were suffering even further from poor nutrition. With a paid staff of 11 and a cadre of almost 600 volunteers, Mama’s Kitchen had delivered over 3 million meals as of 2004.

Chefs of the Lodge at Torrey Pines

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Spanning San Diego County with deliveries of three meals a day to their constituents, the organization not only delivers the meals but provides an informal monitor of the recipients, calling in professional help where it might be needed. Most of their clients are in the poor economic circumstances and unable to help themselves, living on incomes well below the poverty level. In addition to the adults it serves, Mama’s Kitchen supplies food to dependents, 34 children are under service right now. In all, the organization delivers nearly 400,000 meals.

Spring Rolls and Gold Fish

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Funding comes through private donations to supplement a budget supplied by the Ryan White CARE Act through the San Diego County Office of AIDS Coordination and major organizations from all over San Diego like the Dr. Seuss Foundation and Wells Fargo.

Mama’s Day is an annual event that celebrates dining, while bringing in new funding. The 65 restaurants at this year’s event number among the finest in the county with fare that ranged from steaks, seafood, deserts and even a cheesecake martini.

As you arrive in the mixed venue of poolside presentations and a pavilion at the Hyatt, each organization presents its wares in some amazing settings. Thai spring rolls served on plates set above gold fish bowls, shrimp poblano in champagne flutes with tortilla strips, petite filets wrapped in bacon on trays for the taking, lobster bisque, crabcake on a toasted bun, a veritable forest of desert cookies and sweet confections.

Fruit and Chocolate Fountain

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As you wend your way through the genteel crowd, it’s difficult not to try everything you pass. One taste after another makes you appreciate the talent and breadth of culinary creativity in the county. After the first flush of samplings and the first rush of access to all that good food, you might get a small sense of what it might be like to be hungry and have a Mama’s Kitchen volunteer arrive at your door with a hot, nutritional meal when it might be tough to get out of bed. In that light, the crowd of nearly 1,000 guests who paid $125 each becomes easy to navigate.

With an estimated 5,400 individuals and families in San Diego county suffering from AIDS Mama’s Kitchen takes on a daunting task and delivers, day in and day out.

Restaurants paricipating included:

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