Mother & Daughter Volunteer to Honor Late Family Member

Fleur and Carol Bresler find that volunteering is a meaningful way to spend quality time with each other while making a lasting impact on the lives of others.

Their time at Food & Friends is a reminder of how illness touches us all. And, while some volunteers come to Food & Friends without having a direct connection to the mission, Fleur and Carol were drawn to Food & Friends for deeply personal reasons. Fleur’s son and Carol’s brother, Bill, was a Food & Friends volunteer who became a client in the late 1990s. Ultimately, Bill lost his battle to AIDS in 2001.

“We have firsthand experience with Food & Friends because of our son Bill. At the end, they were supplying him with meals,” says Fleur. “During the time, there was a degree of comfort in knowing he was getting nutritional food.”

What started out as a gesture to help Fleur and Carol’s family during a difficult time, has become a longstanding tradition for these two.

“Volunteering makes me feel connected to the community and connected to my brother who is no longer with us,” says Carol.

In 2001, Carol started volunteering on the capital campaign to support the construction of our currently facility. She then joined our Board of Directors in 2001. Both Carol and Fleur took on a regular kitchen shift in 2011.

“I have a long history of volunteering - it is something my generation was taught to do,” says Fleur. “After my husband passed away, we decided to volunteer as a family on Christmas Day to allow others to have that day off. We’ve been volunteering together since then.”

Fleur and Carol regularly volunteer in the kitchen helping to pack meals, chop food and assist with anything the kitchen staff needs. “We don’t ever stand around waiting for another task,” says Fleur. “There is always work to do and there is always a clear appreciation shown by the Food & Friends staff.”

Carol enjoys the camaraderie of volunteering with her mom and feels like she is making a difference.

“There are those who have it worse off than me,” says Carol. “I feel like I am helping to improve people’s lives.”

Both Breslers believe Food & Friends is unique in its approach to caring for those in our community facing life-challenging illnesses as well as their caretakers and family members. “There are still very sick people in our community and it impacts the entire family. There is always more work to do,” says Fleur.

Every Food & Friends volunteer has his/her own story. Fleur and Carol, like the many other volunteers who assist us, may have come to Food & Friends for a specific reason. But they stay because of the happiness they experience being a valued member of the Food & Friends family.

“I feel a degree of satisfaction from volunteering,” says Fleur. “In some small way, I did something to help others. I feel productive and when you are close to 90 years old, that is not easy.”

Building Healthy Habits: 28,000 Diabetic Meals Delivered Already Changing Lives

Food & Friends began with a vision – a vision that connected an unmet need with real possibilities. In the late eighties, the recently discovered AIDS virus was victimizing the country and leaving thousands of District residents helpless to perform everyday tasks -- such as preparing their own meals.

In 2000, we expanded to serve individuals undergoing cancer treatments. And now, we are positioned to help another group of people – those living with high-risk diabetes.

Nearly 1 in 10 District of Columbia residents has been diagnosed with diabetes. That makes diabetes more common than cancer.

Diabetes has a devastating effect on each patient diagnosed – and their families. Untreated diabetes can lead to heart problems, kidney failure, limb amputations and more. This is an urgent crisis in our area and Food & Friends is responding.

Last fall, through a partnership with George Washington University Heart & Vascular Institute and United Medical Center, we launched a pilot program that will provide nutritious meals to people with high-risk diabetes and helps them learn to better manage their disease by making smarter food choices.

“This population is different than our regular population—they aren’t all nutritionally compromised in quite the same way as our other clients when they start service,” says Carrie Stoltzfus, Director of Programs. “But, what they eat has a more direct effect on the ramifications of the illness. When diabetics don’t eat right, over time the chronically high blood sugars can lead to heart failure, stroke, kidney disease and blindness.”

Almost 100 clients have enrolled in the program. They are receiving meals tailored to their specific dietary needs, as well as meals for their caretakers and dependents. More than 28,800 meals have been delivered so far and are having a positive effect.

Successfully managing ones diabetes requires a complete lifestyle shift. So, in addition to meals, our registered dietitians are providing personalized nutrition counseling so the participants can learn how to make healthy food choices. They are also performing quarterly nutrition assessments so that we may gauge the impact these services have on the overall health of each participant.

Even though we’ve only just begun this journey, we are already witnessing positive results.

We’ve heard from participants that they feel less fatigued, less depressed and are experiencing fewer side effects. Additionally, some participants feel less scared and worried about their illness, feel less alone and are doing a better job coping with diabetes.

“We’re looking at where the client stands health-wise before they get to Food & Friends, and where they are after receiving our services for a year,” says Carrie. “We’re hoping to make people's lives easier, and have a positive effect on how they live with their illness day to day."

We are very excited about the opportunities the pilot study will provide in the upcoming year. Throughout 2015 and into 2016, we will continue collecting patient health data to measure the impact of healthy eating and nutrition education on individuals facing diabetes.

The full results of the assessments will not be available until next fall. The outcome of the pilot study will be used to determine whether Food & Friends should permanently extend services to those whose primary illness is diabetes.