31 Jan Feeding our Families with H-E-B
H-E-B Match Reaches Goal
We did it! Because of the loving generosity from people like you, we reached a big milestone! H-E-B is matching $50,000 that we raised with $50,000 toward feeding our families, all part of our JoyFULL Eats program.
JoyFULL Eats provides healthy and convenient food options for families at: Holcombe House, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, M.D. Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital. This program is possible, in part, with the support of H-E-B who helps keep our refrigerators stocked with healthy, convenient ready-to-heat meals and amazing, hearty salads, which are delivered every week and made available at no cost to families like this one:
“When I’m in the hospital with my son, I will not leave his bedside. I try to forget that I’m hungry, and I don’t eat regularly enough to keep my energy going. He really needs me to be alert when the doctors make their rounds. The H-E-B Meal Simple meals have saved me.”
In 2021, H-E-B became a Ronald McDonald House Houston JoyFULL Eats program partner. These H-E-B meal options are important to our families because it allows them to focus their time and energy on being with their child who is sick in the hospital, eliminating the additional stressor of accessing healthy, warm and nutritious meals. At RMH Houston, we know it can be extremely difficult for parents to think about their own needs while caring for their children. Our goal is to provide stress-free and convenient ways for moms and dads to grab a quick meal or snack while tending to their kiddo. H-E-B Meal Simple has made this goal a reality, helping our families by stocking our refrigerators with an assortment of yummy, nutritious meals that are ready to eat in minutes.
Thank you, H-E-B, for helping feed our families, and to the many donors who helped make the match a success. $100,000 in meals and snacks means 10,000 meals and snacks to feed our families this year – that is double our 2021 number!
Learn how you can help expand JoyFULL Eats in 2023 by contacting Bettina Leuschen!
Food for thought from a family:
“My son has been in the NICU for over 3 months. It is a stressful experience, to say the least. During our time here, we have leaned on Ronald McDonald House Houston in many ways: spending nights to be close to my son, taking breaks from the constant blaring of alarms, and eating lunch with my family during NICU day visits. We live 30-45 minutes away from the hospital. My husband and I find ourselves splitting our time between caring for my 3 year old daughter at home, working, and visiting my son in the NICU. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for meal prep, and buying food at the hospital every day becomes expensive. That is why H-E-B’s donation to RMH Houston so important. I personally have enjoyed H-E-B’s prepared meals when I’m at the hospital, and I am very grateful to have this as an option. When I am pressed for time and didn’t pack lunch for myself, or when I am unexpectedly spending the night at the hospital, it is a load off my mind that I can find lunch the next day at RMH Houston. Thank you for your previous contributions, and I hope you will continue to do so for families who, like me, look to the RMH Houston as a sort of refuge from the stress of having children in the hospital for any length of time.”
Feeding families from near and far!
Family visiting from Argentina to see their daughter, son-in-law, and new grandson/nephew at RMH Houston in Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital. Mother (Antonella) and Father (Ethan) live in San Antonio, but when they had their newborn son (Antonio) in September 2022, the family was informed they would need to travel to Houston for their son’s treatment every other week. They were so happy to know that they were welcomed at RMH Houston with a comfortable space to rest, loving staff members and warm, nutritious H-E-B Meal Simple meals that made them feel whole, while staying close to their son.