.jpg)
EDIBLE COOKIE DOUGH WITH A CAUSE
To reflect and honor Diana's spirit and personality, Diana's Dough features different community organizations and charities. A portion of Diana's Dough's profits go to the current featured organization.
Current Featured Community Organization: Multicultural Autism Action Network
The Multicultural Autism Action Network is a Minnesota based non-profit organization founded in 2016 by Fatima Molas and Delia Samuel, who, as parents of autistic children, experienced extreme stress and frustration navigating the regional and federal support systems established to help create a nurturing and empowering environment for their boys.
They provide education, support, and advocacy to create a world where autistic individuals from multicultural communities have access to all necessary services to achieve their fullest potential.
Read more about the Multicultural Autism Action Network on their website: www.maanmn.org.
PAST FEATURED ORGANIZATIONS
The community chosen to kick off our first month in business is Twin Cities Metro Meals on Wheels. My mom delivered meals on wheels weekly in our Iowa hometown for many years. She even continued doing it while she was undergoing chemo and radiation. One of the many reasons I looked forward to summers as a kid was because she let me come along to deliver meals. She often talked to me on our delivery drives about the importance of always being kind to everyone, but especially to the individuals we were delivering meals to. One of the many lessons she taught me through Meals on Wheels was that you never know what struggles someone may be going through and how much a friendly smile or brief conversation can mean to someone.
Metro Meals on Wheels was founded in 1997 as an association of independent Meals on Wheels programs in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area to provide support needed to meet the growing demand for nutritious home-delivered meals. Metro Meals on Wheels exists to provide critical technical, fundraising, outreach and volunteer recruitment assistance to 32 member programs. Meals on Wheels in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area meets a vital need for more than 6,800 seniors and people with disabilities by providing regular nourishment, social connection, connecting recipients to other home-based services, and providing peace of mind to clients, caregivers and families. Metro Meals on Wheels has proven to be even more vital to our community during the COVID19 Pandemic because they are providing meals to high-risk individual, regardless of their ability to pay.
My family knows firsthand the profound impact that cancer has on individuals and their families. Not only does the that awful diagnosis affect people physically, but also financially and emotionally. Angel Foundation provides a wide array of essential support to families affected by cancer.
Angel Foundation is a Twin Cities-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to provide support to local adults with cancer and their families. For nearly twenty years, our programs have helped families facing cancer find more everyday moments of joy.
Through an innovative and integrated approach of financial assistance, education and support, Angel Foundation helps adults with cancer and their families so that they may live life well with stability, strength and resilience.
Esophageal Cancer Awareness Network
Esophageal cancer was the type of cancer that my mom, Diana, passed away from. She was diagnosed in June 2018 and passed away just a short 16 months later.
Esophageal caner is one of the fastest increasing cancers in the U.S. Only one in five patients diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer will survive five years because it is most often caught at late stages. This is why early detection is key. Though considered a rare disease, Esophageal Cancer takes more American lives each year than melanoma skin cancer or cervical cancer. While increased awareness remains ECAN’s primary focus, educating patients about their options for prevention, early detection and treatment has become a priority. ECAN launched the first Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month effort in 2009 and since then, governments, businesses and other organizations throughout the nation have recognized April as Esophageal Cancer Awareness. ECAN is also engaged in campaign to include Esophageal Cancer in the only cancer research program controlled by Congress. Despite its distinction as one of the fastest increasing cancer diagnoses in the United States, Esophageal Cancer is currently among the most poorly funded cancers in terms of federal research dollars. ECAN has become a trusted and reliable source for the latest in medical research affecting those at risk for Esophageal Cancer.
Every Meal (formerly The Sheridan Story) is a Twin Cities non-profit whose mission is to: “Fight child hunger through community and school partnerships.” More than 300,000 children in Minnesota live with food insecurity. When these children don’t have access to the free and reduced meal programs at school, they don’t have access to reliable food and the risk of hunger is very real. Every Meal works to fight hunger in our community by filling the gaps in food access that children face during weekends, summers, and extended breaks.
Every Meal started in 2010 by sending a bag of non-perishable foods home for each weekend to a group of kindergarteners at a Minneapolis school. Since then, Every Meal has grown from serving one school with a weekend food program to implementing multiple food gap programs serving over 10,000 children across 400 locations and counting. Beginning in October 2020, Every Meal celebrated its 10 year anniversary and the milestone of providing six million meals to children living with food insecurity in Minnesota.