Monday, July 11, 2016

It's The Little Things

Sometimes we're moving so fast, or we're overwhelmed by so much going on that we don't get the opportunity to stop and think about the little things that we have or happen to us that makes our most stressful times a little bit easier.

When you are in the midst of the battle for a child's life, the littlest things can sometime mean the most.  You know you need to eat, but your mind and energy is on your child.  You may be hungry, but since you haven't been to work in 6 weeks, you may not have the extra funds to pay for restaurant food that's close to the hospital.  But that's not important to you, because your focus is on the child lying in the bed in front of you - as it should be.

We're trying to help families with this issue.  We've launched two different initiatives that we hope will help bring hope to childhood cancer families who are in the hospital with their kids.

First, we are regularly taking a full catered meal to the Addison Jo Blair Cancer Care Center at Kosair Children's Hospital. While in the hospital, meal choices for families can be pretty limited.  Your child's nutritional needs are supported by the hospital, but families are often on their own to find food.  If funds are low or a parent understandably doesn't want to be away from their child long, getting a good meal can be a huge challenge.  Our catered meals provide a no-cost, convenient food option that is available to the children on the floor, their families and even the hard-working staff taking care of the kids.



These meals have initially been scheduled quarterly, and we are in the process of working to find additional partners to increase their frequency so that we can make sure families have access to good food conveniently while they are in the hospital with their kids.

But we realistically can't bring food every day, so we have started to support families in another way.  While outside-of-the-hospital options for food is somewhat limited, there are local restaurants that can provide a break in the monotony of frozen meals or hospital cafeteria food.  But, eating out is a strain on most budgets, and many parents find it hard to work while their child is hospitalized, further making financial situations worse.  So, we've begun to provide meal gift cards to families in the hospital.






These gift cards cover restaurants that are reasonably close to the hospital, some of which even deliver.  Additionally, we have provided some grocery store gift cards to allow families to shop at a local market to get their food, especially useful if dietary restrictions are involved.  We will be regularly replenishing these gift cards so that families in need have the support they need.

If you know of a local restaurant manager/owner who would might be interested in supporting our meal catering program, please email info@hopefromharper.com.

If you would like to directly support our meal gift card program, and help provide meals to families, you can donate by clicking HERE.

These small things, making life just a little bit easier while families are focused on their child, is one of the ways we are working to bring hope to kids and families fighting childhood cancer.