Group tries to help boost immune systems of caregivers

After seeing how hard the staff worked at Sunnymere retirement home in Aurora as they cared for her mother, Cindy Sansale decided she needed to help the nurses care for themselves.

So the Montgomery woman, who recently took on the role of administrative assistant for The Just Food initiative of the Fox Valley, came up with a plan for the nonprofit group based in Batavia. The group's mission is to "teach people to eat green."

"We're trying to boost their immune system," she said.

Tuesday night, volunteers sliced fresh organic vegetables and put them in bags with a variety of nuts, raisins and sugar-free energy bars in a small kitchen in the Calvary Episcopal Church in Batavia. Sansale delivers the 30 snack bags each week.

"We felt like the staff was working so hard we wanted to help them," she said.

The initiative received a grant from Forefront, a Chicago based nonprofit whose mission is to "build a vibrant social impact" in Illinois through education and advocacy, according to their website. The money is used to purchase the food, which is packed and then delivered every week to either Sunnymere or The Vines Senior Homes in Elgin. With each snack bag is a letter explaining the benefits of building immunity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sansale says the group will be looking for more donors to continue the project through the summer and beyond.

"We are trying to get the word out about what we do," she said.

The group has a Facebook presence with a lot of information about growing your own food and the benefits of eating healthy, and is planning to start online classes to teach people in a more personal way.