Jocelyn has been working, raising her three children, caring for a relative’s child while the parent was at work, and volunteering in her community to share her knowledge and skills with others. She has also been living with AIDS for years. Her health has been up and down, yet she always emerges able to provide for and care for her family, even if she is a little weaker after each illness. In the last year, Jocelyn was forced to give up her job and volunteerism to concentrate on her family and regain her own health and stamina. Unfortunately, she became ill enough to be hospitalized, and then transferred to a long-term nursing facility. Jocelyn’s first thought was to return to her children as soon as possible, despite her frail state. Her medical care provider preferred that Jocelyn stay in care longer, as the physical demands of running her household would be beyond her for some time, and she needed to build her strength; however, they knew they couldn’t hold Jocelyn down while her children needed her. They released Jocelyn to her family and, as part of her home care plan, referred her to the Caring Cuisine home-meal delivery program of AIDS Project New Haven. 

 

Caring Cuisine has been providing Jocelyn and her children with medically prescribed, nutritionally balanced prepared meals designed to give Jocelyn and her family the healthy diet she needs to recover, and the nutrients her children need during their critical growing years. The meals arrive hot, and extra frozen meals are sent for non-delivery days, easily microwavable in a few minutes, so Jocelyn can feed her family with a minimum of physical effort during her recovery. Additional, easy to prepare food staples are included in a grocery bag so that Jocelyn’s family will continue to have enough healthy food items and beverages for the rest of the day, since Jocelyn is not yet well enough to shop on her own.  
 

Neighbor-to-Neighbor Lifeline’s financial support has made it possible to respond immediately to the needs of Jocelyn’s family, and to provide enough nutritious food so that none of them go hungry. N2N’s investment in Caring Cuisine has also helped provide stability and increased the emotional well being of Jocelyn’s family, helping keep this dedicated mother and her children together during this difficult time.