URBANA — Food insecurity and AIDS are locked in a cyclical relationship: poor nutrition worsens symptoms, which can negatively impact diet in turn. To combat this, the Greater Community AIDS Project of East Central Illinois is hosting free cooking classes for people living with HIV/AIDS in Champaign County.
The classes are held every few weeks at the University of Illinois Extension office in Champaign. Participants learn basic food preparation skills and nutrition as they practice a new recipe each class.
Christy Vasilopoulos works for the extension office teaching nutrition education programs, and teaches GCAP’s cooking class. She said she and her colleagues work to keep the recipes affordable and accessible for all attendees.
“We want to make sure, dietary-wise and physically, that everybody has the ability to engage,” Vasilopoulos said. “Not everybody is going to be able to go and go get organic everything. So if frozen spinach is all you can get, then we teach you how to use that frozen spinach to the nth degree.”
In addition to educating people on how to make enriching meals, the classes provide a sense of community and belonging for Champaign County residents living with HIV/AIDS.
“The best part about this class is eating together,” Vasilopoulos said. “The cooking is nice for us to know how to do it, but the eating is where we get to kind of bond together, because at the end of the eight sessions that we get, we get to be a little community together. And I love being able to do that.”
Whisky Blu, a GCAP member at large who is open about his HIV-positive status, said he loves to cook, and living with HIV and other chronic illnesses has forced him to eat healthier. The class is helping him learn how to make alternative meals that he still enjoys both cooking and eating.
“It’s definitely good to start learning, to retrain myself,” he said. “They’ve given me the tools. It’s up to me to use the tools that they’re giving.”
GCAP, which was founded in 1985, provides housing, support and educational programs to its clients. But tariffs and executive orders slashing federal funding to many programs have made funding for the organization uncertain.
Darya Shahgheibi, the executive director of GCAP, said in an email that she’s concerned about the situation and that GCAP “will aggressively seek alternative funding opportunities.”
In a recent newsletter, GCAP also condemned federal funding cuts that have impacted foreign AIDS programs and warned that “reductions in prevention efforts will inevitably lead to increased transmission, more AIDS-related illnesses, and more AIDS-related deaths.”
Studies have shown that good nutrition can lessen the toll HIV takes on the body. Symptoms like poor appetite, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea often make it difficult for those with HIV/AIDS to get the nutrients they need.
Moreen Christman, GCAP’s client services committee chair, worked with HIV/AIDS patients as a nurse practitioner at Carle Hospital for decades before her retirement. She said a proper diet is crucial to battle the virus.
“Malabsorption [of nutrients in food] occurs if clients do not have medications or refuse to take medications,” Christman said. “They’re losing a lot of their nutrients, and if you don’t have a healthy immune system, then you can’t fight off infections.”
Christman also noted the holistic benefits of programs like the cooking class.
“Educational opportunities like this really help to impact their general health,” she said. “When you have food insecurity, when you have a chronic disease, of course, it affects your mental health.”
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