It's been two years since the organizations known as Open Hand Chicago, Community Response, and HIVCO consolidated to form the entity called Vital Bridges. Vital Bridges provides prevention, counseling, food, and housing assistance to more than 2,600 people impacted by HIV and AIDS throughout Chicago.
There are other impressive figures as well. The organization provides individuals and families with more than 57,000 nights of housing—and more than 750,000 healthful meals each year, making up 90 percent of the foods that go to HIV-infected people in the metropolitan Chicago region.
Vital Bridges marks a couple of milestones this year. In October, Vital Bridges' food services provided their six millionth meal for people living with HIV/AIDS. Also, this month, the GroceryLand program, the organization's biggest food service, will mark its 10th anniversary. Those numbers might cause jubilation in some circles; however, here they cause an understandable amount of concern and sadness.
Windy City Times recently sat with Ron Nunziato, who is treasurer of the organization and a member of the board of directors, and Debbie Hinde, who is president and CEO of Vital Bridges, at GroceryLand's Uptown site. We proceeded to discuss the past, present, and future of this critical program.
Windy City Times: Give me a quick rundown on how Vital Bridges formed.
Debbie Hinde: In 2001, discussions began between Open Hand Chicago, Community Response, and HIVCO regarding a merger. That merger focused on two things: enhancing and expanding service for clients; and creating an institution with more financial viability. In 2002, each of the boards appointed people to a merger committee and over the next few months they met to discussion missions and challenges. They ultimately recommended a merger to those boards. On July 1, 2002, the three organizations merged. Then, we decided what our name would be.
Ron Nunziato: When a lot of the smaller AIDS service providers started popping up in the mid-'80s, we figured that [merging into larger organizations] would become an inevitability. I think that merging is a natural progression of any smaller charitable organization in order to become more effective.
DH: One of the things that was important was that all three organizations had provided food and had worked together. That provided a good basis for moving forward. In addition, between the three, you had a continuum of services that would allow clients access to help with housing, nutrition, mental health, and other issues all at one place. The merger allowed us to build services that are more accessible and responsive.
WCT: Ron, you mentioned merging being a natural progression. Do you see other entities merging with Vital Bridges in the future?
RN: I think anything's possible. Debbie is certainly on the front line of getting that information. I certainly have heard of other organizations that are looking to partner. The process [of merging] is something I compare to giving birth; it was time-consuming, costly, difficult, and emotional, but very rewarding. It takes a very mature CEO and board to take an agency in the direction we've gone.
DH: The unfortunate piece is when organizations take too long and are in critical condition when they decide to merge. Then, there's no time to plan and figure out things —and the liabilities become too great.
WCT: How have donors been affected?
RN: We've tried to bring as many donors along as possible in the process of merging. For the most part, donors have been very supportive. To a large extent, both clients and donors really don't care what we call ourselves; as long as the services are good and accessible, they're [content]. They have expressed positive comments about the direction of the agency.
DH: Change is hard, period. The closer you are to an organization, the more value you place on what it is—so a name change is emotional. Embracing a new name was a difficult proposition, but people have moved on.
RN: We had people help with [redefining] goals, the vision, the branding, and other things. We wanted to convey true meaning with the name.
DH: The point of Vital Bridges is that 'vital' is about energy, vitality, and living. 'Bridges' is about connecting—connecting people to services and our mission as well as connecting volunteers to our organization. It's also about clients building bridges in their own lives so they become healthier and more self-sufficient.
WCT: What are the most and least rewarding aspects of working here?
RN: The most rewarding is seeing a difference in the people we serve, like physically seeing it by coming here to the grocery center and seeing the difference our programs make in people's lives.
The least rewarding aspect probably involves funding. The amount of time, energy, and work is exhausting. The special-events side can be fun and rewarding; putting governmental grant applications together and dealing with paperwork, however, is very difficult. At times it can just be damn frustrating.
You look at where money goes ... there's AIDS in Africa—but what about AIDS in the United States? We're facing an incredible prevention issue that no one wants to fund. AIDS seems to be a back-burner issue now. There's going to be a second wave of HIV [infection] and we're not doing enough to provide prevention education.
DH: The most amazing thing about running the organization is seeing what a few people can do. We only have 40 staff members but we're serving 2,600 people across the metropolitan area. The 500 volunteers are the ones who fill the gap. It's actually a privilege to guide all of this.
The most difficult thing to deal with is the fact that it never ends. There are always more requirements, more financial needs, and other things. It sometimes feels like the myth of Sisyphus. It just saps your energy— but you can't stop because people still need services.
[Incidentally,] one of the great things about running something that's volunteer-driven is that you see the potential of people. Our human resources committee has trained our managers—and the training would've cost thousands of dollars otherwise. It's also happened in other arenas, like finance; people bring their skills to the table to make us better.
WCT: Please describe what GroceryLand is.
DH: GroceryLand provides food and nutrition services to people who are HIV-positive disabled or have full-blown AIDS and who are living at 140 percent of the poverty level or below. There are three sites in the city and three in the suburbs. When clients are eligible, they can come into one of these sites each week to get food supplies equivalent to 10 meals; they choose from a menu designed by dietitians. While they're here, they can see dietitians to learn how they can improve their diets; they can also see case and housing managers.
The blessing of these sites is that the volunteers make it happen. They stock the shelves, unload the trucks, and fill the orders.
WCT: What about people who can't make it in?
DH: There would be two reasons clients can't make it into one of our sites; either they're physically unable or there's no public transportation. In the suburbs, we deliver grocery boxes every other week. Now, we can actually include perishables in these boxes so people now get fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. People in the city who are homebound can receive home-delivered prepared meals.
RN: GroceryLand speaks to the part of our mission of self-sufficiency. It's an important vision to allow people to come get their food rather than a meal. What's more [representative] of self-esteem than getting a box of food and choosing your meal?
WCT: Vital Bridges's food services are providing their six millionth meal this month. Do you have mixed feelings about that?
DH: Absolutely. Wouldn't it be nice if it weren't necessary—and if there were a cure? Wouldn't it be nice if people had enough resources to pay for their own housing, food, and medical care? All of that would be very nice, but that's not where we are.
RN: It's a [double-edged] sword. It's a celebration because we want to recognize the staff, donors, and volunteers, but at the same time you're saying 'Oh my God. This is still going on 20 years later.' Wouldn't it be great for every AIDS-related organization to be out of business—because they're not needed? Some of these people are living off of $554 a month, and that has to cover rent, transportation, and other expenses. How do you do that in metropolitan Chicago?
DH: I call it the recognition of a milestone; I don't call it a celebration. It's good that we've been able to provide the services; it's awful that we've had to.
WCT: What's happening Nov. 9?
DH: It's actually a press event. We'll talk about our food services and reaching the milestone of the six millionth meal. We'll talk about the 10th anniversary of GroceryLand. We want to let people know how the program happened—because of donors, volunteers, and the community. The event offers the media an opportunity to hear about all this and also gives us the chance to show our gratitude to key honorees, such as AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Chicago Department of Public health, Greater Chicago Food Depository, and the Sidetrack family. They've been critical to making things happen. We also will unveil a logo designed pro bono by renowned artist David Csicsko, a long-time supporter of our programs. The logo is a big cake with a little bird that has a fork under its wing. We're also honoring volunteers and donors at our Nov. 15 celebration.
RN: I think it's an amazing organization and that we've been truly blessed by the support of this community, our staff, donors, and incredible volunteers.
See www.vitalbridges.org .
