Putting The Comfort in Comfort Food

As legendary French Chef Georges Auguste Escoffier once said, “Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.” When I think about food, I can feel myself getting happy, excited, and even a little anticipatory. Those emotions are building blocks for every meal created at God’s Love We Deliver and are home-delivered with our most important emotion – love – behind it. But what about other emotions? Fear, sadness, anger – these are also emotions that many of our clients experience living with a chronic illness. This is why it is important to consider emotional health. How an individual thinks is an integral part of our tenet to help our clients live their best lives.

Our mission at God’s Love has always been to improve the health and well-being of people living with severe or chronic illnesses by alleviating hunger and malnutrition. Food has the power to nourish, fortify, and bolster not only one’s physical well-being, but also their emotional state. Conversely, food insecurity is a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food, which can put one’s emotional health at risk. Through our research and evaluation efforts, we’ve been able to demonstrate a measurable impact on food insecurity, as well as reductions in hospital visits and admissions, alongside improved bloodwork and adherence to medication management. Though measuring emotional wellness is a continuously evolving process at God’s Love, it’s a process we are committed to.

Our team of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) work jointly with our Culinary team to create our menu of medically tailored meals that is rooted in evidence-based guidelines for dietary therapy, ensuring the highest possible standards are always being met. Along with the ongoing nutritional counseling sessions being provided by our RDNs, our Behavioral Health Program Administrator has begun a deep dive into studying what the world of wellness looks like for our clients. With a robust platform of educational modules exploring topics like “Chronic Disease and Nutrition” and “Food and Mood,” specifically for U.S. Veterans on our Connected Program, God’s Love is working to let our clients know that we hear them – and we’re here for them yes, for physical health, but also to improve all of our clients’ emotional health.

One of my favorite special touches at God’s Love is our birthday program. Every client receives a homemade, personalized cake and card on their birthday, and our drivers have often been known to deliver these with a song. For some of our clients, it’s the first birthday celebration they’ve had in many years. Now there’s an example of good food, improving our emotional health, delivering genuine happiness for both our clients and God’s Love – and I’m sure Chef Escoffier would agree!

If you’d like to sponsor a birthday cake to help our clients celebrate their special day, please do so here.