APLA Receives $3.5 Million Donation

Just in time for World AIDS Day, AIDS Project Los Angeles received a $3.5 million endowment from philanthropist Bob North that will go to the organization’s food pantry, client services, and prevention and advocacy efforts.

North, who found success in the food-service industry, gifted the endowment in honor of his son, Vance, who he and his late wife lost to AIDS in 1995. North’s endowment will help sustain APLA’s food pantry network, the largest in the nation. The network will be renamed the “Vance North Necessities of Life Program.”

“This is truly a landmark investment in our work,” Craig E. Thompson, APLA’s executive director, said in a statement. “It’s impossible to overstate the impact of this gift on our ability to provide first-rate care, including nutritional support, to the 10,000 clients we serve annually. Through the creation of this endowment, Bob and Lois North acknowledge the reality we face: Thirty years in, the need for strong and stable HIV/AIDS care programs is greater than ever – and we’re still likely decades away from a vaccine or a cure.”