In 2003 chef Sheri Sullivan, the former owner of Sheri’s Diner and Plan-It Sheri Catering in Brandon Vermont, became a hospice volunteer. She quickly realized that as someone approached the end of life, food could offer comfort, be a gift of love and support neighbors at their most vulnerable time. Sheri soon began donating meals to hospice patients and their families in her community.

Inspired by the difference these meals made, and the depth of gratitude expressed by patients and their families, she was moved to create a model that could be replicated in any hospice agency nationwide. She reached out to other local restaurants and chefs, and with their help and the help of friends, started Dinners With Love, Inc., in 2009. In 2010, DWL became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Brandon, Vermont. 

In 2022 after a day long retreat with an expert in non profit growth, the board came away with two simple but very profound conclusions. It was of utmost importance that the Dinners With Love Program be available to any hospice agency that wanted it and the organization itself, Dinners With Love did not need to exist to accomplish that.

In 2023 this free standing site was created to allow any hospice agency in the country to download the Dinners With Love Program free of charge and the non profit Dinners With Love organization was formally dissolved according to the laws of the State of Vermont.  

Sheri Sullivan, left, with our first volunteer, Pat Hanson, at our tenth anniversary celebration on April 28, 2019 at the Middlebury Inn.