“Live… At Bourbon Street,” the annual wine tasting fundraiser for Mama’s Kitchen, was held this past week with 225 people attending. Thanks to a hardworking staff and plenty of sponsors the fundraiser was a huge success, raising an estimated $14,000 for meal delivery service for people living with AIDS.

“It was a little low in attendance this year, but it was still a great time,” Edith Glassey, the director of development for Mama’s Kitchen, told the Gay and Lesbian Times. “We made more than last year, which is a good thing.”

Last year’s event grossed $17,000 and netted just over $12,000. By comparison, this year’s event, which raised $14,000, grossed $18,000.

“We had more sponsorships,” Glassey said. “The sponsorships really helped and our silent auction made more this year.”

The ticket price for the event also went up from $30 to $35, so the impact of the lower attendance was more than made up for in the cost of the tickets sold. In return for the $35 ticket, attendees got more than their money’s worth in wine donated by Southern Wine and Spirits and the Canyon Road Winery. TK&A Catering, Prego Ristorante, California Cuisine and Twiggs Coffeehouse provided special hors d’oeuvres that were paired with each of the wines. Setting the mood for the evening were Janice Edwards and Ken Ard, who provided live music for the event.

“People were really pleased,” Mama’s Kitchen Executive Director Alberto Cortes said. “They seemed to have a good time and it certainly looked like there were more than a few cups of wine being consumed.”

The money comes at a time when more and more organizations are being forced to cut back because of tightening budgets and fundraising difficulties. Early this month Mama’s Kitchen learned that they would be receiving a $150,000 drop in their funding as a result of the HIV Planning Council’s budget cuts.

“Like every other not-for-profit, we have had to tighten our belt and look to operate as fiscally conservative as possible,” Cortes said. “For an operation like ours that has been lean it becomes a greater challenge. Our focus has been to contain or reduce our costs with out impacting our capacity to serve people and we have been able to do that thus far.”

Fundraisers like the wine tasting and the Mama’s Day event held in May are a big part of keeping the organization running and able to serve between 350 and 425 people with meals every day.

“Each time we get a cut somewhere we have to make up for it through private contributions,” Glassey said. “We are trying to be very strategic in our fundraising to our private donors. Events like this that bring the masses and the crowd are real important to us because it keeps us in their mind.”

“Live… At Bourbon Street” also marks Cortes’s one-year anniversary as the executive director of Mama’s Kitchen, during which time he has made it a priority to continue to remind people that there is still a need for organizations like his.

“I think we have created a greater awareness of the ongoing reality of AIDS,” Cortes said. “We’ve had lots of opportunities to keep the general public informed that we are still here and we are still providing services to people with AIDS and they need our services.”

For more information about Mama’s Kitchen or to volunteer, call them at (619) 233-6262.