God’s Love We Deliver is one of the most important resources in New York City for people living with serious illness, but if people don’t know about us, we can’t do anything to help them. As Program Outreach Coordinator for God’s Love, I work nearly round-the-clock to ensure that more communities across this city know that we are here to home-deliver life-saving nutrition education and meals. Chronic disease disproportionately impacts people of color because of healthcare inequities and the social determinants of health. Any effort that’s made to improve the health and welfare in these particular communities is extremely important to me. Therefore, I make a special effort to ensure that the word about God’s Love is getting out in Black neighborhoods. I work often in Harlem, BedStuy, and Jamaica, Queens, joining coalitions and co-hosting events so that the community in NYC know that we’re here. This is how we can have a wider impact .

One of the important reasons I so strongly support community outreach is so that our governmental representatives know that their funding directly improves the lives of their constituents.  One example I recall is,  former Assembly woman in the Bronx, Vanessa Gibson, who’s now a Councilmember and Richard Torres, who is a former Councilmember in the Bronx and now a Congressman,  saw me at a community event, and they said “Oh it’s so good to know that God’s Love We Deliver is in our communities. I give you money.”

Another example is NYC Councilman Robert Cornegy who is running for Brooklyn Borough president; he wanted us to have a presence in Bedstuy every week at his food distribution, and so I went, as often as I could.

This Black History Month, I’m excited to highlight the work that I’ve been doing in Black communities and communities of color over the last 6 years, but I also want to acknowledge that we don’t just honor and celebrate Black stories and Black history this month. I went to a historically Black college, and there was a sign on campus that said “This Month is Black History Month” and that sign stayed up all year. That’s how I like to think of this work at God’s Love.

I’m very hopeful that God’s Love We Deliver will continue to grow its presence in communities of color. Whenever I meet someone at an outreach event and they tell me they haven’t heard of us, I think oh, it’s your lucky day today then. You can help save someone’s life today.

I also want to highlight an upcoming community nutrition event that we’re hosting. Austin Park, a God’s Love RDN will be leading a free webinar on Nutrition and the Immune System on March 4. It’s significant because it’s National Nutrition month. The people that I speak with are always very excited that they have the opportunity to work with a nutritionist who will tailor the meals to their particular needs. It’s really the core of our program.  I’ve been sending the flier out to hundreds of people and the response has been overwhelmingly good.  It’s very exciting because I know that this particular event is going to open the door to a wide range of new clients for us.

So why don’t you join us?  The link to register is below