A Letter From Bill's Board of Directors

Bill's Pantry, Inc., is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to meeting the nutritional needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the Twin Cities.

We have served the HIV/AIDS community since 1999. We have done our very best to offer nutritional and healthy foods to our clients. Our "long run" has come to an end and now it's time to say goodbye.

The effects of a bad economy impacts donors, volunteers and food suppliers as well as clients. We have been notified by our largest funding sources that they will either cut back or cut off their support for Bill's. The result is a 70% reduction in available funds and we cannot operate the pantry at that level.

The original idea was to provide clients with breakfast food to help absorb the large amounts of medications that were typically prescribed for HIV/AIDS patients. Current medication protocols have changed and it is not as common to have large amounts of medications to take every morning.

The need to feed the hungry is probably greater than when we started. Therefore, we are hoping to find an organization that will take over the pantry facilites as a food shelf. We are in the process of contacting various churches and agencies about continuing operations. We will keep clients informaed when we get closer to a solution.

For our clients, we recognize that our closing will be a hardship, but closing our doors is the only option we have. We encourage you to find other resources as well as continuing to use The Aliveness Project and Open Arms. Another alternative is Hunger Solution's Minnesota Food Help Line at 1-888-711-1151. It was a great run and it has been our true pleasure to have served the community for so long. Thank you for your support.

Bill's Pantry Staff