Dite used food as medicine to heal. Now she delivers meals to our clients.

Dite Pipilis is a volunteer with a mission. She sees herself in the clients she serves. She connects with those to whom she delivers meals. Healthy food has had a transformative effect on her and she is grateful to be the final leg in getting healthy and nutritious meals to others who need it.

For her whole life conventional medicine had failed Dite. She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and a variety of autoimmune illnesses. Her illnesses, which added to her weight issues, led to a state of limited mobility. She felt trapped in her body and her home, and was full of despair.

And so, at her lowest point, Dite found herself unable to walk one and a half years ago. She saw her world contract to the point of not being able to leave her home. Much of her interaction with other people amounted to the brief encounters with the people making deliveries. She found herself at the age of 48 in spiral of decline with the limitations on her life closing in on her. She thought to herself, “What will be my future?”

And then Dite embraced functional medicine as advocated by Dr. Mark Hyman and took control of her life. Through a rigorous diet of the right foods at the right amounts at the right intervals she dropped 100 pounds, reversed all symptoms of her illnesses and is off all medications. Now that she’s pain-free, she revels in her newfound mobility. At nearly the age of 50, Dite feels better than she has in 25 years.

Dite is a life-long New Yorker and was not familiar with God’s Love We Deliver as we slowly expanded our mission of cooking and home-delivering  free, nutritious meals to people with serious illness. Discovering us on Instagram, Dite felt an immediate connection to our mission.

Dite says that food is her foundation. It is the key to recovery and sustaining a healthy lifestyle. It is all about giving her body what she needs when she needs it. Here at God’s Love we say that food is medicine. Proper nutrition should be at the forefront of any illness treatment plan.

When Dite discovered God’s Love she immediately felt compelled to volunteer for us by delivering meals right to the doors of our clients. “When I have my bags of 40 pounds of food and I’m climbing stairs, sometimes it’s hard, but it feels amazing,” she says.

“When the clients greet you it’s lovely. To share your spirit is a gift – and I didn’t do that for a long time. It’s a waste to have your health and so much life and not connect for the greater good.”

Dite started making walking deliveries for us on March 1st and figured she would try it for a month. That month has come and gone and Dite is still delivering for us. Our mission has now become her mission and she doesn’t see herself stopping as long as she has so much to give.

Dite’s walking deliveries dovetail with her commitment to stay active and healthy. Getting up and serving someone in need is the biggest gift for her. To be able to walk and climb stairs to deliver meals is something she appreciates from her own experience. She considers her service to our clients a privilege. It is all in keeping with her vow that once she reclaimed her mobility, she was going to put it to good use.

“Technically, I’m a volunteer for God’s Love. But the truth is I feel like one of the clients as my time meeting the (other) clients and the crew at God’s Love has and continues to help me heal. It all serves as medicine to me. It really is my privilege to be part of the God’s Love universe.”

Interested in becoming a walking delivery volunteer like Dite? Sign up here!