August 19, 2013
“MANNA gives me a peace of mind”
“The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake” – First Lady Michelle Obama at the Let’s Move! launch on February 9, 2010.
According to Let’s Move!, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled over the past three decades and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. Barring any changes, one third of all children born this century will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives. Many others will have to deal with obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and asthma.
It is critical to watch what we feed our children, but what if you did not have the energy, money or time to cook healthy meals because you were sick? That is where MANNA steps in! With aggressive treatments and medications making MANNA clients feel weak, they are sometimes unable to provide meals to their children. Other clients may choose to divert their meals to their children, further endangering their nutritional status. To ensure the health of the MANNA client as well as their children MANNA provides 3 meals a day, 7 days a week to their dependents.
Meet Desiree, a MANNA client, breast cancer survivor and mother of four young children (13, 6, 4 and 2 years old). She knows the struggle of providing healthy meals to her children while ill, “It was a relief! That’s what I feel. When your family needs you, you can’t think about being sick or tired, you have to respond to them, but I had no energy to help myself or them. I started to not be able to remember a time when I wasn’t sick – and I wondered when things would return to normal. When we sit down as a family for dinner, that means ‘normal’ is coming back to my family!”
“MANNA gives me peace of mind. And the kids know the delivery schedule better than I do…the 4 year old will say, “Mommy isn’t today when we get the food?” They love the fruit cups!”
Help provide peace of mind and nourishment for our clients and their children by donating.