ABOUT

Providing emergency housing, emotional support, and stability in crisis for ADVANCED HEART FAILURE PATIENTS and their FAMILIES.

OUR STORY

Heart Failure is an unexpected road many of us are never prepared to walk. The Beretta’s, like so many other families, know this to be true.
The Beretta home is a lively combination of Italian and Puerto Rican heritage, Tennessee hospitality, and unconditional love. Their long-held belief is that faith and family are everything.



When Joe Beretta, the patriarch of the family, experienced sudden advanced heart failure in the Spring of 2016, his family was introduced to the LVAD or Left Ventricle Assist Device. Their hope was the LVAD would act as a bridge to a heart transplant and extended Joe’s life. Patients being considered for a VAD have reached a critical point in their health and most will not survive if they don't receive it. VADs rely on recent technology that is difficult to implement outside of a very advanced hospital setting. Because of this, only a handful of hospitals across the United States can accommodate VAD patients. The bridge to transplant gives needed time to search for a heart match in a very small pool of viable transplants.

When someone you love is ill, so many things change in your life. Time, the thing you never feel you have enough of, is allotted for things you never thought about. The Beretta’s had to rethink how they ate, how to reduce weight, track symptoms, and their whole world seemed to change overnight as their attention was turned to getting Joe better. Heart Failure became part of their everyday lives.

Unfortunately, Joe passed due to unforeseen complications but not before the family witnessed the struggle of other families. Short-term housing needs due to the small supply of hospitals capable of performing these lifesaving operations forcing families to travel to get help. They witnessed families having to make the choice between paying their bills or buying their medicines, and families not having enough for better, more costly, food that helps reduce hospitalizations. These were things that could not be ignored or erased from their minds, so they decided to jump into the battle against heart failure and assist families with everyday practical needs. Help with the financial burden of temporary housing, paying bills, gas money for travel to and from the hospital and clinic visits, and a food program and app that helps promote heart-healthy eating and repeat hospitalizations.

Learn More: Our Team & Board Members
Donate:  
https://www.thejoeberettafoundation.com/copy-of-papa-joe-s-house

 



KPC:  COMMUNITY KITCHEN PITTSBURGH

Community Kitchen Pittsburgh is a 501c3 employment-based social enterprise. Our mission is to use food as the foundation to change lives and improve communities.
 
We have two primary mission activities: we provide paid workforce training and job placement for under-employed or unemployed adults experiencing barriers to employment, and we provide community meal services in partnership with other nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies. 
Our training curriculum is integrated into our food services, so that our trainees, under the guidance of chef instructors, produce all the meals in our commissary kitchen. We prepare and deliver upwards of 1500 meals every day for our community partners, like The Joe Beretta Foundation.
In addition to paid, applied training, our trainees also receive wraparound supportive services to ensure that we are doing everything we can to remove the barriers that might prevent them from securing and maintaining employment. 

Since launching in 2013, we have prepared and delivered over 4.5 million meals to our community and trained and placed over 300 men and women into living wage employment.



The Nashville Food Project

The Nashville Food Project was born from the idea that ALL people should have access to the food they want and need. We know that one in seven people in Nashville lacks access to enough food to sustain a healthy lifestyle. But we also know that more than 40% of all the food in our city goes to waste. Solutions to hunger take much more than simple handouts. Poverty, unemployment, low wages, and escalating housing costs all contribute to the challenges that the most vulnerable residents of our city face.

We believe food can be a powerful tool to foster health, belonging, and justice in our community. That’s why we...

Grow — In our gardens, we grow organic food intensively, and share resources with others interested in growing their own food.

Cook — In our kitchens, we use recovered, donated, and garden-grown food to prepare and cook made-from-scratch meals.

Share — In our community, we share nourishing meals in partnership with local poverty-disrupting nonprofits and community groups.

The Nashville Food Project embraces a vision of vibrant community food security in which everyone in Nashville has access to the food they want and need through a just and sustainable food system.

Working toward these goals requires powerful, creative community collaboration... and we would love for you to be a part of it…