Nourishing NICU Families: A Meal Project
Donation protected
GROW has been supporting NICU families at UVMMC with home-cooked meals and trauma-informed personal care for the past year, and we hope to continue! Will you help us pay for food for these families?
Sadly, our grant DOES NOT COVER THE PURCHASE OF INGREDIENTS for our staff to cook for these NICU families. The grant does cover her time and the support she offers, but the meals are the driver of the conversations and the most important part of our weekly connection at UVMMC.
Last year we crowd-funded for the cost of the food, and we are so thankful for all of the donations. We currently have $210 left in the bank to buy this year's ingredients for the rotation of meals Emily cooks (her monthly rotation includes baked ziti, fried rice, shepherds pie and mac n cheese.)
If this project speaks to you, please consider this one time ask of donations for our 2025 NICU meals!
Here's what we've noticed after our first year with this project:
- Nurses are saying the meals and one-on-one support helps families in a way that they're not able to.
- We have had significant interactions with NICU families with limited resources and/or experiencing homelessness.
- Providing a home-cooked meal allows us to begin a conversation about either/both the highs or lows that they faced on this particular day. We have had families share their birth stories, helping them process their experience.
Any amount helps! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Susan Cline Lucey, GROW Prenatal & Family Owner
Emily Fujioka, NICU Project Coordinator/Postpartum Doula for the NICU
Organizer
Susan and
Organizer
Burlington, VT