Using her experience as a manager with another food program, Ruth enlisted the help of her friends, secured a basement kitchen at a local church and began to serve meals to seven clients, Project Open Hand was born. Project Open Hand has not stopped growing since. We moved to a kitchen on 17th street and developed a food bank. In 1989, we started serving people with AIDS in Alameda County . In 1997, Project Open Hand moved to its current home on 730 Polk Street.
Clients can now receive hot nutritious meals, groceries and nutrition education all under one roof.
In 1998, Project Open Hand furthered its reach and began serving congregate lunches to seniors at 17 different sites throughout San Francisco. At the beginning of 2000, Project Open Hand expanded its services to provide Meals with Love to people who are homebound and critically ill . People who have limited social services available to them and are in need of the comfort Project Open Hand's meals provide.