Celebrating Mom with a Home-Cooked Meal

Motherhood can be an exhausting, life-changing and unpredictable job. Whether it is feeding, teaching, transporting or just playing with children, mothers spend their time tending to the needs of others.

Lyniss relies on Food & Friends'
deliveries to help her fight HIV.

Now imagine being a mom facing a life-challenging illness. In addition to the daily responsibilities of motherhood, these moms have to spend extra time and energy fighting to stay healthy. Lyniss Guildford was diagnosed with HIV around the same time that her son was born. This diagnosis, combined with a leg injury, make it difficult for her to perform everyday tasks like grocery shopping. Five years ago Lyniss received her first home-cooked meal from Food & Friends and her life hasn’t been the same since. 

For Lyniss, Food & Friends “teaches me to take care of myself, take my medications and follow doctor’s instructions.” Food & Friends also allows her to be as strong and healthy as possible so that she can provide for her family.

Food & Friends provides Lyniss the resources to be not only a great mother but an amazing grandmother as well. The groceries she receives make it possible for her to host family gatherings during holidays so her daughter and three grandchildren who live in North Carolina can visit. 

The support does not stop with food, Lyniss has also learned a lot about the community by being a part of Food & Friends. 

Food & Friends helps Lyniss care
for herself so she can  care for her son.

“Food & Friends provides me with knowledge and confidence. I don’t have to feel bad or like a non-entity to society,” says Lyniss. “When the volunteers come with the food they are also bringing information, recognition and acceptance.” 

As someone who once felt stigmatized by her positive diagnosis, Food & Friends provides Lyniss with a community of volunteers to which she feels connected.

“You have taught me certain behaviors towards humanity no matter what form or shape.” 

Lyniss wants to pay forward the kindness she has received from volunteers to people she doesn’t know. She wants to pass these values on to her son, who really appreciates what Food & Friends does for his mother. 

“Great servants to the weak - no matter the weather. Anyway you need help, they try and meet it,” says Lyniss. “Food & Friends has been a blessing to me. And I see them helping other people - neighbors, friends and family. Helping the nation. A great blessing to the world.”