Our Story
Katie was just an average 12 year old girl in May of 2004, just having finished soccer season and ready to start softball. She had been feeling a little puny so we took her to our pediatrician to make sure everything was OK. Within a few hours, we were on our way to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital where Katie was to have a bone marrow aspiration, which would confirm the cancer diagnosis. Katie was diagnosed with Acccute Lymphoblastic Leukemia ( A.L.L.) and that day began 2 ½ years of daily chemotherapy.
This type of diagnosis tends to mean frequent and prolonged hospital stays that are unpredictable in terms of when they will happen. Your schedule, and that of your family, is based on the blood counts for the child with cancer.
Katie felt very blessed to live near the hospital, because our family could bring meals from home. Her two brothers, Zack and Matthew, could come and see her and call daily as it was
This type of diagnosis tends to mean frequent and prolonged hospital stays that are unpredictable in terms of when they will happen. Your schedule, and that of your family, is based on the blood counts for the child with cancer.
Katie felt very blessed to live near the hospital, because our family could bring meals from home. Her two brothers, Zack and Matthew, could come and see her and call daily as it was
not long distance. Additionally, my husband and I were very fortunate to work in positions and companies where we were able to be flexible with our schedules, and as such were able to spend the time we needed to be with our daughter during the 2 ½ years of treatment, and our two sons at home.
During one of her long admissions to the immuno-suppression unit at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Katie looked around and began to notice that some of the other families came from very far away to be treated. One day, she asked, quite simply, "Mom who feeds those people?” Life had handed us a teachable moment for Katie, and we explained that they had more difficulties than we did. As Katie would later say, “ God laid it on my heart to do something to help them”.
She decided she wanted to start a charity that would feed those families so that "this one thing could be fixed for them.” We began this without knowing how we would do any of it, but with God, all things are possible, and now after three years have a thriving KHH program at Vanderbilt.
In navigating the difficult path that was Leukemia, including a complication that landed her in a wheelchair for a year, Katie never wavered from keeping her focus on others who were having a harder time than we were.
In the fall of 2007, Katie decided that there were probably hungry parents at every children’s hospital, and decided that she felt called to take KHH to as many of them as possible. We met with the good people of Cook Children’s Hospital in Ft. Worth Texas in October and struck an agreement to open our first out of town KHH there. Meals should begin rolling down the hallways in May of 2008.
In January of 2008, we hit the $100,000 mark at Vanderbilt, and have rolling events planned each year to make sure that no family ever goes hungry.
We are currently narrowing down the field to select our third hospital.
During one of her long admissions to the immuno-suppression unit at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Katie looked around and began to notice that some of the other families came from very far away to be treated. One day, she asked, quite simply, "Mom who feeds those people?” Life had handed us a teachable moment for Katie, and we explained that they had more difficulties than we did. As Katie would later say, “ God laid it on my heart to do something to help them”.
She decided she wanted to start a charity that would feed those families so that "this one thing could be fixed for them.” We began this without knowing how we would do any of it, but with God, all things are possible, and now after three years have a thriving KHH program at Vanderbilt.
In navigating the difficult path that was Leukemia, including a complication that landed her in a wheelchair for a year, Katie never wavered from keeping her focus on others who were having a harder time than we were.
In the fall of 2007, Katie decided that there were probably hungry parents at every children’s hospital, and decided that she felt called to take KHH to as many of them as possible. We met with the good people of Cook Children’s Hospital in Ft. Worth Texas in October and struck an agreement to open our first out of town KHH there. Meals should begin rolling down the hallways in May of 2008.
In January of 2008, we hit the $100,000 mark at Vanderbilt, and have rolling events planned each year to make sure that no family ever goes hungry.
We are currently narrowing down the field to select our third hospital.