Free Food For NICU Parents

Submitted By: Kaleena Steinke

A while ago my mom came to me with something on her mind. I quickly discovered that it was on her heart as well. As I listened to her thoughts and ideas, I recognized this need and knew we could do this.

Together we created this organization, “Food for NICU Parents,” to provide the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital NICU with free, healthy foods and snacks for the parents of the NICU babies.

A new baby should be a time of joy, but for some parents, their worlds are turned upside down as their new bundle of joy enters through the doors of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU.) As well as their main priority and concern(the health and progress of the baby,) they are also hit, at the same time, with the worries and concerns of the financial burden.

Babies are in the NICU for days, weeks, and even months. Most parents don’t leave their baby’s side. As a former “NICU mom” I know of the never-ending love, concern and hope for progress that we had for our son. Aside from our continuous thoughts and prayers for our baby, we experienced many other overwhelming fears, such as the financial burden of not only the stay, medications, and treatments, but also the out-of-pocket expense of food.

The University of Iowa provides the NICU parents with vending machines in the NICU lounge, but there is not a good selection, and they are usually picked through. Another source for food is the cafeteria. There the parents can eat healthy, but it comes with a high price and their only other option (if living in the NICU) is to leave and bring back fast food or take out. This option is also very pricey and not a good source of nutrition (keep in mind that the parents are there for days.)

All parents need to keep themselves healthy so they can focus on the health and well being of their child/children. This is the same for parents of babies in the NICU. But how can they eat healthy in the hospital at a reasonable price? “Food for NICU parents” goal is to help reduce the parents out-of-pocket expense for food.

We are working with our local Hy-Vee Food Store to steadily stock the NICU cupboards. Together my mom and I have created a web site, http://food4nicuparents.webs.com/, to inform the public of this need and ways they can get involved.

“Food for NICU Parents” hopes to keep the NICU cupboards stocked for many months to come!