The nonprofit Mama’s Kitchen was launched in 1990 when a San Diego caregiver started delivering free meals to local men sick with HIV and AIDS. That same year, San Diego attorney Jennifer Kearns was introduced to the tragedy of the AIDS crisis when she began helping these dying young men write their wills.

This Friday, Mama’s Kitchen will host its 26th annual Mama’s Day, a gourmet tastings event that is the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year. And Kearns — who has been donating her money and time to Mama’s Kitchen from its earliest days — is serving as the event’s 2017 chair.

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Up to 700 people attend the annual event, netting Mama’s Kitchen up to $200,000 each year. The money is used to prepare home-delivered hot meals and stock a food pantry for its nearly 1,300 clients with HIV/AIDS and cancer, according to Alberto Cortés, executive director of Mama’s Kitchen. He can’t say enough about Kearns’ longtime commitment to the organization.

“She is passionate, she is dedicated, she is intelligent and she is a really fun person, too,” Cortés said. “From the first time I met her, well over 10 years ago, I could see she had a keen understanding the importance of being an effective board member. I’ve always been grateful for her.”

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“I’m half Chinese and half Irish. I looked racially mixed when I was growing up in the 1960s and was subjected to racial epithets and slurs,” she said. “Because of that, I’ve always had an empathy for people who are different. Back then, LGBT and HIV/AIDS people were horribly marginalized and I just felt an affinity for them and their needs.”

In 2003, Kearns attended her first Mama’s Day event. The following year, she joined Mama’s Kitchen’s board of directors — a position she has held ever since, except for a two-year break in 2012-2013 due to term limits. She was board president in 2007 and Mama’s Day co-chair in 2008. All of these efforts have been supported by Kearns’ employer, the law firm Duane Morris, where she’s served as a partner in its employment law division since 2004. She also serves on the company’s diversity and inclusion initiative and the firm has co-sponsored Mama’s Day for several years.

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“It really drives home that the smallest gesture that you can make in helping another human being with their basic needs is so appreciated,” she said. “It doesn’t require a lot of money or a lot of effort on your part. It’s just about showing up and caring enough to take care of other people. You get back a lot more than you give."

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For more information about Mama’s Kitchen, visit mamaskitchen.org.