How Our Breast Cancer Program Helps Women and Families

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and every year we take this opportunity to spread the word about our services for individuals and families affected by breast cancer.

The side effects of cancer treatments make it difficult to eat well, and malnutrition can complicate breast cancer treatment, making it harder to recover. Our Breast Cancer Program delivers nutritious meals for households affected by breast cancer. Our meals are individually tailored to meet the nutrition needs of patients undergoing treatment, helping them to regain their strength and independence.

When one person is sick, the whole family is affected. For the children of parents who are too sick to shop or cook for their families, we provide child-friendly dinners, as well as breakfast kits to help kids start the day right. We also provide meals for senior caregivers who are struggling to meet their own needs while caring for a sick loved one with breast cancer.

Our dietitians track clients’ health and medical treatments to offer the right food at the right time, including soft, minced or pureed food for those who may have trouble chewing and swallowing. We produce nutrition guides specifically for breast cancer patients and survivors which we share with clients, community-based organizations and healthcare providers.Nancy, a client of our Breast Cancer Program, recently shared her story about how God’s Love makes a difference in her life.

Nancy is a 42-year-old single mom with a 15-year old son. When Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer on top of a lupus diagnosis, everything changed. “I had lost all energy to do something as simple as walking,” she says. “I have to rely on someone else to do things for me and I’m not used to that. I lost so much weight.” Nancy found herself isolated and depressed.Nancy began receiving meals from God’s Love and she feels each meal has made her a little bit stronger. Working with a dietitian, Nancy says our program “helped me to figure out a lot of things – what to eat to try to keep the weight on.”

There are many more stories like Nancy’s in our Breast Cancer Program. In the past year we cooked and delivered 82,730 meals for 313 breast cancer patients, their children, and their senior caregivers. We rely on our wonderful partners—Komen Greater NYC, New York Community Trust, and others—to keep this program going.

If you would like to learn more about supporting our Breast Cancer Program, contact our Development Department at development@glwd.org.