For a majority of us, the past 18 months have been defined by change.
But for too many, that change has meant not having a safe and secure source of healthy food for themselves or their family. Mama’s Kitchen has served more than 1 million healthy, medically tailored meals since the beginning of the pandemic – representing 10% of the 10 million meals we have served since our founding 30 years ago. We have welcomed more than 2,276 new clients into our Home-Delivered Meal Service, providing a secure and reliable source of healthy nutrition for their diagnosis.
In daily conversations with our clients, we have learned firsthand how the pandemic has increased barriers to access for crucial services. We have been working to breakdown these barriers and streamline access to a pillar lifeline – healthy nutrition. We have streamlined our client intake process, extended our six-month recertification date, increased communication methods (clients can now call, text, or email).
As we continue to fight the Delta variant and remain hopeful for recovery, Mama’s Kitchen is working to further increase access while build capacity for further impact. We are actively working to reopen our Mama’s Pantry in a new space that allows for easy access to public transportation while also broadening this program, which historically offered no charge healthy groceries to individuals with HIV and low income.
We also look forward to new infrastructure and staff roles, including new client management and delivery routing software and hiring an IT manager, an HR manager, a third registered dietitian nutritionist, a bilingual community outreach manager, and a licensed clinical social worker to reach more community members in need.
We look forward to sharing more of these milestones with you in the near future.
Our team at Mama’s Kitchen has witnessed so many expressions of perseverance, dedication, and kindness. Whether small or large – they all added up to immeasurable impact that allowed Mama’s Kitchen to change thousands of lives over the past 18 months. For this we are so grateful.