Furloughed Workers, Families Receive Free Meals

Story by Tiffany Doss, originally published on pcsda.org

With thousands of families in need during the government shut-down, Mytonia Newman, Restoration Praise Center member and owner of My New Cuisine catering business, decided to do what she could to help those in a practical way and committed to feeding families for one week.

During that time, Newman provided 45 family-style meals to furloughed workers. “I use to work professionally in Washington, D.C. and now my commercial kitchen is there,” explained Newman. “So, I’m surrounded by federal workers. I knew several families personally that were affected by the shutdown and I also posted what I was doing on my Facebook page. I had many responses from people asking if I could include their son or daughter on the list for meals and others asked how they could donate. I continued getting funding and ended up doing a second week of meals for families.”

When asked what prompted her to donate her time and resources, she said, “I was diagnosed with cancer several years ago. A lot of people don’t live years past their diagnoses. Every day I have is an extra day that I won’t squander. I genuinely look for opportunities to help others, so I couldn’t pass this one up.”

Newman says her cancer diagnosis inspired the development of her vegan catering business. “My husband is an oncologist. He went vegan years before I did, based on what he knew about cancer,” she explains. “When I was diagnosed, I started doing research on my own and soon became vegan. I truly believe faith and dietary discipline is how I’m beating cancer.”

Newman’s catering business, My New Cuisine, focuses providing healthy, vegan meals.

With her own experience helping her make informed decisions, a large portion of Newman’s clients are people undergoing cancer treatment. “I speak with them about what type of cancer they have and then build a diet plan for them around that,” she explained. “Since I have been through treatments myself, I have a good sense of what foods the body needs to heal and what foods can be tolerated after treatment.”

Newman also provides hot lunch meals for students at Olney Adventist Preparatory School (Md.) and, while the government shut-down has ended for now, she says she will never stop looking for ways to use her gifts and business as a ministry.

For more information about My New Cuisine, visit mynewcuisine.com.

Click here to see other ways Adventists helped during the government shutdown.