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Q: The HIV Pantry

Hi! I run a food pantry for individuals who are HIV positive. Can you suggest items that would be appropriate to have in the pantry? Thanks.

A: Charlie Smigelski, RD responds:

We have a Food Bank here in Boston for HIV+ people, run jointly by the Red Cross, AIDS Action, and the Boston Living Center. People get 4 to 5 bags of groceries twice a month. The goal of the food program is to meet the higher protein needs of someone who is positive. It is also somewhat mindful of the likelihood of some fat intolerance and tries to address the need for extra fruit and vegetables for trace minerals that suppport immune function.

Here is the list I drew up as our ideal volume of groceries:


Foods for Grocery Bags for Nutrition Works

These amounts are for 2 weeks; they are generous.
They figure that someone is eating all meals at home, not eating 6 lunches and 1 dinner out a week.

Protein Items:
Breakfast: 2 quarts of cottage cheese or 1 lb. (soy) protein powder; (? 12 eggs)
Lunch: 3 lbs of tuna, turkey, chicken, etc.
Dinner: 6 lbs of chicken, hamburger, fish, ground turkey, etc.

Vegetable Items:
Lunch and Dinner: 5 lbs: 4 lbs. broccoli, mixed veges, zucchini, string beans, etc. & 1 lb carrots or greens.
Legumes: 1.25 lbs (dry wt.) or 4 lbs canned weight.

Fruit Items:
2 svgs. per day and 1 8oz juice … total: 28 pieces and 1 gal. juice
(This might be 1 3# bag fresh oranges and 1 lb raisins and 2 lg cans peaches

Starch/Grain items:
Bread: 2 loaves at 1 lb each
Cereal: 1 lb. box
Rice/Pasta: 2 lbs
Potato/Corn/Peas: 1-2 lbs.

Milk/Cheese Items:
Milk: 2 fluid gallons or 3 lbs. cheese; or 1 gallon and 1.5 lbs. each item
Dry milk ??

Fats/Oils:
1 pound butter, margarine or 16 oz canola oil, corn oil, peanut oil, etc.
Or 1 lb nuts/seeds and either 1/2 lb. spread or 8 oz oil.

Condiments/Spices:

Ketchup/mustard, etc.

Household Items:
Detergents: dish soap, laundry soap
Paper goods: napkins, TP, paper towels

A: Ken Stringer, Web Site Administrator, responds:

Evem though we have ".com" in our URL, Jennifer Jensen's Nutrition Power is not a commercial web site and we do not have anything to sell. HOWEVER, it occurs to me that a very useful item in an HIV Pantry would be a nutrition information pamphlet/workbook for Positive People. Mindfulness of our non-commercial status probably prevented him from mentioning it in his response above, but it turns out that Charlie has written just such a workbook called Eat Up! I think this is a wonderful tool, but there is some cost involved in its manufacture. Charlie provides this book for a very modest fee. Anyone who is interested can go to Charlie's Eat Up! Information Pagefor all the particulars.

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