Written by Blake Foley

Danielle & Andy’s charity picks

“One of the charities we have donated to is the Beaumont Health Foundation, specifically to their COVID-19 fund. All of our children were born at Beaumont Hospital and most of our doctors work out of that hospital.  We wanted to support their COVID-19 fund to help all of the amazing healthcare workers who need supplies and equipment as well as funding research efforts for treatment.

We have also donated to Gleaners Food Bank which helps families in need.  We have donated to Gleaners for years.  They distribute about 100,000 meals a day to families and right now with the pandemic, food banks are needed even more to help families who may be hit hard financially with the COVID outbreak.” 

Beaumont Health Foundation https://www.beaumont.org/ 

Beaumont Health is Michigan’s largest health care system (based on inpatient admissions and net patient revenue) and provides patients with compassionate, extraordinary care, no matter where they live. With eight hospitals, 145 outpatient locations, nearly 5,000 physicians and more than 38,000 employees, Beaumont’s commitment to patient and family-centered care contributes to the health and well-being of residents throughout the community and beyond.”

Gleaners Food Bank https://www.gleaners.org/ 

Gleaners was founded in 1980 by a group of concerned citizens who felt strongly that no one should go hungry. Since that time, we have distributed more than 520 million pounds of food and critical grocery through a committed network of more than 550 food pantries, soup kitchens, schools, and community partners throughout our 21-county service area. In addition to food distribution to hunger relief agencies, Gleaners serves our most vulnerable populations – seniors, veterans and children – through specialty programs such as the BackSacks: Weekend Food for Kids, School-Based Pantry, Mobile Pantry, Summer Meals for Kids, CARE, Produce Hope and Senior Hunger Initiative programs. Gleaners also operates one of 7 Regional Produce Cooperatives for Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization. In addition, we are a disaster relief staging site for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the contract reclamation site for Kroger Central Division.

Working in today’s climate

“We have been working from quarantine for weeks, which has been an adjustment!  There have been lots of consultations by phone or videoconferencing from our home office.  Right now, estate planning is more important than ever so we have been talking to clients who want to get their affairs in order. In addition, we have been doing TV interviews by Zoom which has been interesting!  Keep in mind, we are doing all of this with three teenagers in the house who are doing online schooling, so it’s been hectic!  Our advice would be to have a designated work area (which is our home office) that you can go to for work so you get right into the work mode!”

“During quarantine, one of our favorite things to do is walking on our local nature trails.  We try to get out of the house and into nature early every day, whether there is sun, rain or snow.  Usually about once a week, we pick-up from a local restaurant in town.  We have been trying to mix it up between different restaurants to support them and get a little variety from our cooking too! And it’s wonderful because most of them bring the food directly out to our car so we can stay safe.”