Foundation feeds needy dialysis patients

Posted on Fri, Apr. 11, 2008

Foundation feeds needy dialysis patients

BY ANDRES AMERIKANER

A little more than 10 years ago, Loretta deVries found herself in a crowded dialysis center for the destitute in downtown Miami, an unlikely location for the wife of a former diplomat from Suriname.

Her husband, Johan, had suffered kidney failure from diabetes, and the treatment facility was conveniently close to his doctor. It came as a shock for deVries to see the people in the waiting room, hungry and weak, barely able to stay awake.

When Johan passed, deVries, who has lived in Sunny Isles Beach for 27 years, had some thinking to do.

''We were married for 35 years, so I was lost without him,'' deVries said. ``I asked God to show me the way.''

DeVries decided to trade a life of networking, attending functions and traveling -- her husband had been posted in Amsterdam and New York, among other cities -- for a life of low-profile charity. Since 1997, she has dedicated herself to the Dialysis Food Foundation of South Florida, an organization she founded that provides bags of groceries to needy dialysis patients.

Based out of a back room at the Jackson Medical Towers, 1500 NW 12th Ave., deVries and her sole employee, Eileen Bewley, feed almost 300 patients weekly, with a waiting list of another 300.

On Tuesday, deVries will receive a community service award from the American Red Cross of Greater Miami and the Keys, one of 11 women honored by the organization in its annual Sara Hopkins Woodruff Spectrum Awards For Women. Her foundation is, according to the National Kidney Foundation, the only one in the nation specifically devoted to providing food for needy dialysis patients.

Twice a week, Bewley stations a red shopping cart loaded with bags -- each containing cans of vegetables, tuna, saltines, rice, macaroni and more -- outside the DaVita dialysis center, just steps away from the foundation's office. She checks off a list as each patient takes their bag.

Inside the dialysis center, rows of patients sit in pink recliners, most of them sleeping. A steady beeping fills the air as nurses wearing face masks scurry around the room.

Each dialysis session lasts about four hours. At the end, some patients lack the energy to walk a few steps to the food distribution office. Many of them are uninsured, so they visit the emergency room only when their health problems are extreme. By that point, kidney failure might be the least of their worries, deVries said.

''Can you imagine getting treatment like this and going home with nothing in your refrigerator?'' she said. ``It's a horrible existence.''

About a quarter of the people on the list die every year, and the open spots are quickly filled up, as social workers constantly contact deVries to sign up more patients, she said.

For some patients, like 53-year-old Tommy Harvey of Brownsville, the food is a lifeline. Harvey, a former water company worker, comes in for dialysis three times a week and never fails to pick up his food, which he saves up.

''I've got a big box of it at home,'' Harvey said.

The foundation had a humble start. The storage room and office were donated by the Public Health Trust; the first shipment of food came from Oklahoma. DeVries put her real-estate practice on the back burner -- although she's still in the business -- and started writing grants.

Finding a steady source of food was a problem. Food banks can't provide the sort of nutritionally balanced food that the dialysis patients need. Today, the food comes from a grocer and the foundation pays close to full price.

This is why donations are desperately needed, to keep providing quality food and to expand the list of recipients. Just $5 can buy four meals, deVries said.

Patients are allowed to eat only low-phosphorous food: no chocolate, ice cream, pancakes, hot dogs or pizza; but grapes, fish, burgers, lettuce, pineapple and cornflakes, for example, are fine.

DeVries hopes that other organizations across the country will copy her efforts and provide some relief to hungry patients, one center at a time.

''This shouldn't be,'' she said. ``This is a travesty.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/aventura/v-print/story/491655.html