Nourishing Hearts: Making Difficult Starts Easier

Our partner charity, The Little Miracles Trust, are known for making a difficult start to life that little bit easier for the whānau of premature and unwell babies. So, when Auckland’s Middlemore Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) came to them with an issue, of course they helped!

In this South Auckland hospital, they often have parents who are struggling to make ends meet.  Parents sometimes have to choose between spending money on food for their tamariki at home or paying for petrol and parking to visit their critically ill baby in the NICU.  That's a choice no parent should have to make.  They may also be far away from home and their wider family support or, even if they are close to home, they are tired, drained and worried, having spent the day by their baby's incubator and just can't face the idea of cooking.

The Little Miracles Trust answered the call to help out and were able to purchase a tall freezer for the Neonatal Unit at Middlemore and fill it with nutritious frozen meals. They couldn’t have done this without the generosity of donors like those who give through One Percent Collective.

The first day the freezer was filled with meals, word spread excitedly around the unit. One mum of a premature baby was so overcome with this generosity that she was brought to tears when she realised she could take these meals home to her children.

She arrives at the unit early each morning to spend the day with her baby, while her mum takes the older 4 children to school and kindy. Dad’s work days are often 15 hours and Mum leaves the NICU late in the afternoon to collect her other children and continue with the evening routine of homework, dinner, and preparation for the next day.

She went on to say that money had been tight, time was precious, and shopping and preparing food for her family had become almost impossible in the previous weeks. She was looking forward to going home and sharing a cooked, hot meal that the whole family could sit together and enjoy.

Now, heart-warming classic recipes as well as the occasional treat fill the freezer each week. They are either purchased by The Little Miracles Trust or donated by another of our partner charities, Bellyful. This initiative by The Little Miracles Trust is just what a tired new parent needs!

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Words and image supplied by The Little Miracles Trust