Dining Out for Life

In the northern Bay Area Thursday, the nonprofit Food for Thought in Sonoma County will join with numerous area restaurants to honor World AIDS Day with the 15th annual Dining Out for Life.

The 87 restaurants and cafes participating will donate 25 percent to 50 percent of the day’s sales to the nonprofit, which provides nutritional services to over 800 people living with HIV and other serious illnesses in the county.

“It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year,” stated Ron Karp, Food for Thought’s executive director. “The proceeds from Dining Out for Life ensure that we’re able to keep providing fresh groceries, a congregate lunch program, produce from our organic garden, vitamins and supplements, and nutrition education to our clients, who receive these services for free and for as long as they need them.”

Food For Thought hopes to raise over $165,000 from the event. For the complete restaurant list, visit http://www.FFTfoodbank.org.

Dining Out for Life spokesman and Project Runway All Stars winner Mondo Guerra will also reveal a video Thursday meant to emphasize “Pozitivity.”

“When I was first diagnosed with HIV, I could have chosen to see my status as devastating – and respond accordingly,” Guerra said in a news release. “Instead, I made a conscious choice to live with HIV in ways that challenge and inspire me both as an artist and as an advocate. … I now choose to live each and every day with a positive spirit, and I’m positive that I am better for it. That’s the power of pozitivity that I hope to share.”

Inscribe in the Castro

Also Thursday, starting at about 10 a.m., students from Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the Castro district will lead the second annual “Inscribe” event, where local residents, business people, and visitors will use colorful sidewalk chalk (provided) to write messages and draw pictures on the sidewalks in the 400 and 500 blocks of Castro Street (between Market and 19th streets).

Inscribe is the brainchild of community activist George Kelly. Last year, the collaboration between the Castro elementary school and a group of long-term HIV survivors called Honoring Our Experience saw the names of more than 1,000 people written out along the sidewalks.

For more information, email GeoKellySF@att.net.

 

HIV Cure Summit

The amfAR Institute will hold an HIV Cure Summit Thursday in Robertson Auditorium at the UCSF Mission Bay campus, 1675 Owens Street. The summit runs from 1 to 4 p.m., followed by a reception.

Organizers said the forum will include a community update on progress toward an HIV cure featuring leaders from the amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research.

The event is free and intended for the general public. To RSVP, visit http://www.amfar.org/rsvp2016.

 

San Jose City Hall

At 5 p.m. Thursday in San Jose, World AIDS Day will be marked with the City Hall tower being illuminated in red. People attending are asked to wear white.

“HIV/AIDS continues to disproportionately affect communities of color, youth, women, and the trans community,” organizers said.

San Francisco Interfaith Council

At 4 p.m. Sunday, December 4, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, 290 Dolores Street, will host the San Francisco Interfaith Council in recognition of World AIDS Day. The theme is “Where We Find Hope.”

“Many think that the threat of AIDS/HIV is over,” Reverend Maggi Henderson, pastor of Old First Presbyterian Church, said in an email. “Others believe that an HIV diagnosis is a death sentence. Reality lies between these beliefs. My church experienced horrific loss of life in the 1980s and 1990s, but it made us step up, offer support for our members and friends, and advocate for the LGBTQ community. I would love to see the day when this service can be canceled because a cure has been found. However, until that day this service is a place for grief, remembrance, hope, empowerment and advocacy.”

The service will include music by the choral group Lady Parts and Cantor Sharon Bernstein, prayers from a variety of interfaith traditions, and various speakers.