New Year, New Hope
A letter from our Founder & CEO about MaxLove Project’s initiatives, programs and events in 2024.
Greetings friends,
I’m very excited to share an overview of MaxLove Project’s initiatives, programs and events for 2024 ! We’re headed into our 13th year of impact, thanks to you! 2023 has been a tough year for us; philanthropy has declined sharply and a reduction in donations forced changes to our offerings. We’re hoping that the conditions in 2024 will improve. That said, we’ve found creative ways to pivot and change what we do to accommodate the new fundraising landscape. Post-pandemic we’re learning to walk again, now on completely new terrain. Regardless, we’re not giving up — cancer doesn’t slow down and neither will we!
In 2024 all of MaxLove Project’s programs will be categorized under three categories, what we’re calling initiative pillars:
Thrive Against Cancer - How you know MLP today.
Culinary Medicine for All - Culinary medicine serving at-risk families in our communities.
Culinary Medicine Collaborative - Teaching providers how to administer culinary medicine programs in the hospital and clinic settings
These three initiative segments are helpful for us in terms of grant funding and prospective donors. We’re broadening our culinary medicine work and, at the same time, we’re also target the majority of our efforts on culinary medicine, save for our Thrive Against Cancer initiative which will offer support more broadly to childhood cancer and rare disease families as we always have.
“Thrive Against Cancer” Initiative:
Starting early in 2024 we’re thrilled to welcome Jeni Rhodes to the team. Jeni is a social work graduate student who will support our intake as well as mental and emotional health programs.
In 2024 we’ll also offer four “Ohana Day” events in Southern California. These events will consist of a Fierce Foods Academy class plus additional activities that will change with each event.
We’re working on funding our 2nd cohort of our groundbreaking nutrigenomics precision nutrition program. The cohort has already begun with the families who’ve been funded for care. If you’re interested in this program you can learn more here.
The second edition of our cookbook will be released AND will be available on Barnes & Noble too! The second edition will include a beautiful index as well as extensive corrections.
In April we’ll host a Mommas Retreat in San Diego county and later in the year we’ll host one, if not two, grief retreats.
Our “Cookbook Club” online Fierce Foods Classes will continue monthly.
Our new office in Orange, CA will be opening! We're thrilled to be able to offer Fierce Foods Academy classes there when it opens.
In other exciting news we’re starting a little podcast series in 2024 where we’ll interview experts in our focus areas of cancer, culinary medicine, emotional health, and overall quality of life care.
Our MaxLove Project connect app is *filled* with amazing free courses and resources. We add to these resources regularly thanks to our Content Manager, Samantha Chacon.
We'll continue to offer twice-monthly Fierce Foods culinary medicine classes at the Dwaine and Cynthia Willett Children's Hospital of Savannah as well as other partnering hospitals, to be announced.
“Culinary Medicine for All” Initiative:
We’ll be engaging schools in a garden and nutrition grant competition program. We’re also working with local organizations such as children’s museums to offer classes.
We're working hard to open a new community garden and outdoor teaching space in Savannah, GA with our friends at The Salvation Army.
“Culinary Medicine Collaborative” Initiative:
We’re so excited to begin a pilot program teaching Child Life professionals how to administer culinary medicine programs in the hospital setting!
Save the Dates for our 2024 Events:
Our “Walk for Kids” event at Tanaka Farms will be the best yet! Save the date for 4/28/24 at Tanaka Farms.
The 2024 Fork Childhood Cancer App-Off will be incredible! Save the date for 9/14/24. Please let us know if you have any interest in joining one of our fundraising teams.
Rombauer Blue Parties: Join us in Scottsdale, AZ on 2/22 or Atlanta, GA on 9/5 for a beautiful gathering with the legendary Rombauer Vineyards all to benefit MaxLove Project!
Thank you all for supporting our MaxLove Project Ohana. From day one we’ve been all about crowdsourcing hope. You’ve been a huge part of extending hope through quality of life care to those in need. It’s a ripple effect and we couldn’t do it without the dear donors, volunteers and staff who make MaxLove Project happen!
With MAXimum love,
Audra