Food For Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank was founded in 1988 with the mission of providing comprehensive nutrition and other services to people affected by HIV/AIDS. A distinctive feature of the food bank is the Therapeutic Garden Program, which provides a hands-on approach to learning about the links between good food and health. Since 2010, the gardens are also the site for a moving community-wide AIDS Memorial installation.
The AIDS Memorial at Food For Thought fulfills our long-time goal of having a place of solace and remembrance in our garden. A gift to a community that has suffered great devastation from AIDS, the site provides a quiet place for reflection and an opportunity to acknowledge both our personal and collective loss. The Memorial, made possible by a generous donation from George Lord, is an evocative installation designed by artist Mark Brudzinski.
The site includes a steel scultpure of an “empty chair,” a trickling fountain, and shaded seating under a wisteria arbor. Copper leaves engraved with the names of people lost to AIDS dangle from the arbor. Two bricks of the trickling fountain are engraved with the text
We Shall Meet,
But We Shall Miss You
There Will Be
One Vacant Chair
The Food For Thought AIDS Memorial is open to the whole community and everybody is invited to add the name of someone they have loved and lost to AIDS.

Food for Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank