MARCH 10, 2003 

Shawn Thorne quit his job at a World Trade Center eatery to help people with AIDS.

As President Bush renews the global battle against AIDS, chef Shawn Thorne savors life as a foot soldier
 
For Shawn Thorne it was a big decision, but not one he ever imagined would ultimately link him to two of the most globally momentous stories in recent decades.

In May 200 1, Thorne quit his glamorous job as a chef at the renowned Windows on the World restaurant atop New York's World Trade Center. His new position: helping to serve food to disadvantaged AIDS and HIV patients as the executive chef of the non-profit Momentum AIDS Project. He never thought it would be a life-saving decision. On most days, Thorne was the first chef to arrive at the ritzy skytop restaurant, opening the kitchen at 6 a.m. to prepare for breakfast and lunch. Of course, if the 36-year old New Yorker had not changed jobs when he did, his name would have surely been added to the death toll of September 11, 2001. "Taking this job saved my life," he says. It also, with the recent decision by President Bush to allocate ~$15 billion over the next five years and ratchet up the US’s commitment to fight AIDS worldwide, made Thorne a player in another global battle, one that many experts consider the greatest health challenge to humankind today.

"We do some good stuff," says Thorne, who took a $10,000 pay cut to serve food to people In need.

The president's initiative, announced in late January in his State of the Union address, targets 12 countries in Africa, as well as Haiti and Guyana. But Thorne and the others in the front lines of the fight here know there’s real work to be done at home work that is intricately bound to the administration's global efforts. As one senior Bush staffer said recently about the new AIDS initiative, "The president often talks about not only winning the war, but winning the peace."

These days, along with his fellow Momentum workers, Thorne spends his days in synagogues and church basements throughout New York dishing out a more down home cuisine than he did at his former job. But his menu, which includes lasagna, fried shrimp and roast beef, is still as tasty as ever.
 
When budget permits, he even cooks up a fancy meal like Cornish hens or gourmet French toast. "We try to make each and every guest happy," he says. He's happy too, doing a job he knows makes a difference.g