(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The latest chapter in Geri Hernandez’s life began four years ago, when she was diagnosed with cancer.
Her sister kept her company through long days of chemotherapy.
“My sister, who’s a nurse, thought it was a good idea to distract me with cooking and talk about food and recipe creations,” Hernandez told WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller.
And one day she decided to open an empanada shop.
Fast forward three years.
“When COVID hit, we started donating meal kits to doctors and nurses because it was very difficult for them to get out of the hospital and to get food,” Hernandez said.
Others began making donations. So far, she’s delivered 3,000 meals to frontline workers at 20 hospitals.
Recently, Hernandez began a new project.
It started with her decision to send a care package to her nephew, who serves on a Navy destroyer.
“And the care package was $250. It would have been very easy for us to send out a package. And I said, ‘Well, what about the guy sitting next to him? What about his shipmates?’ They would feel bad if they didn’t get a care package.”
So, with the help of other donors, Geri Hernandez is trying to raise $75,000 to send care packages to everyone on board the USS Sterett. That’s 305 servicemen and women.
“I think if we just move through the world with grace and we take care of each other, I think everything — everything — is going to be all right.”
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