Home Baked: One Woman's Subversive Response to the AIDS Crisis

California Foodways

The coronavirus brings back memories of another public health crisis, where the federal government was slow to respond and communities had to take care of each other: the AIDS epidemic. One woman who became an unexpected caregiver is Meridy Volz. Starting in the 1970s, she ran a bakery called Sticky Fingers Brownies. "The business changed," Meridy says. "It went from something fun and lightweight to something that was a lifeline." This is her story, told by her daughter Alia Volz whose memoir, Homebaked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco, came out in April.