July 31, 2025
A legacy of healing, one plate at a time
With Kaiser Permanente’s help, Mama’s Kitchen is creating a quiet yet powerful movement to help nourish San Diego’s most vulnerable people.
Medically-tailored meals deliver food, hope, and dignity to critically ill community members.
For 35 years, Mama’s Kitchen in San Diego has delivered food, hope, and dignity to critically ill neighbors, reminding them that they are not alone. Mama’s Kitchen, founded in 1990 during the height of the AIDS epidemic, partnered with Kaiser Permanente in 1998.
At a time when patients were isolated and underserved, Kaiser Permanente provided an early grant to Mama’s Kitchen to deliver meals to people who were too ill to cook or shop. Our support sparked a relationship rooted in compassion and community service. We have proudly stood by the organization’s side for over 20 years.
A partnership that delivers meals that heal
Kaiser Permanente has provided over $400,000 in grants to Mama’s Kitchen, including our current $95,000 grant supporting the Medically Tailored Meals for Underserved Populations project, which will deliver in 2025 over 967,000 dietitian-designed meals and snacks to 3,000 critically ill people living with HIV, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or other conditions.
“Our clients are facing some of the most difficult moments of their lives,” said Eva Matthews, CEO of Mama’s Kitchen. “By providing medically tailored meals, we’re not only improving health outcomes, we’re giving people the strength to keep going and the reassurance that our community cares for them.”
A far-reaching impact
Packaging medically tailored meals for delivery to people in need is Eva Matthews’ passion, as the CEO of Mama’s Kitchen.
The work of Mama’s Kitchen is more critical than ever. As of December 2024, 1 in 4 San Diego residents can’t afford 3 nutritious meals per day for themselves and their families. This affects 212,000 children, 176,000 older adults, and 133,000 people with disabilities, according to the San Diego Hunger Coalition.
More than 92% of Mama’s Kitchen clients live below the poverty line. They’re from communities that are disproportionately affected by systemic health and nutrition inequities. Mama’s Kitchen reflects and serves the diversity of San Diego with dignity.
A high-impact investment with healthy returns
We’re giving people the strength to keep going and the reassurance that our community cares for them. Eva Matthews, CEO of Mama’s Kitchen
By providing meals at no cost, Mama’s Kitchen enables families to redirect their limited income toward housing, health care, and other essential needs. The program is also helping reduce emergency room visits and hospitalizations — a low-cost, high-impact investment in health equity.
“Mama’s Kitchen is a critical partner in our shared work to advance Food Is Medicine interventions that address the critical link between food and health," said Amanda Schultz, community health manager for Kaiser Permanente in San Diego. “Their medically tailored meals provide support to prevent, treat, and improve the health of our most vulnerable neighbors.”
A commitment to Food Is Medicine
Since 2020, Mama’s Kitchen has expanded delivery service by 120%, and its leadership in the Food Is Medicine movement has not gone unnoticed. In 2024, Mama’s Kitchen became the first nonprofit organization on the West Coast, and only the second organization in the nation, to earn accreditation from the Food Is Medicine Coalition, which sets rigorous standards for medically tailored meal providers.
As the need for nutrition support continues to grow, Kaiser Permanente and Mama’s Kitchen remain committed to a shared vision — a community where no one faces critical illness alone and where every meal is a step toward healing.
