Grateful All The Time: How Open Helped Luther and His Family

Luther is known as the head chef in his household, providing dinner for his wife Umorrow, and his two sons, Luther Jr. and Lathan.

“We always do meal time, and he usually does all the cooking,” says Luther’s wife Umorrow.

“Taco Tuesday is big,” says Luther. “Any type of taco.”

A few months ago, Luther started to experience a strange feeling in his eyes. “Both of my eyes were blurry. It was like there was water in my eyes.”

The fluid in Luther’s eyes was not draining, creating inflammation and causing pressure on his eyes. This resulted in a loss of vision, and the loss of a lot more than that. Luther couldn’t work at his job in association management. His job required him to do a lot of face-to-face work at different properties, or time in front of a computer screen, and his deteriorating vision made it extremely difficult to fulfill his obligations. After three weeks he ran out of PTO, and was eventually discharged because of his medical condition.

“It went from normal to not normal,” says Umorrow.

“All of a sudden, Dad’s not cooking. I can’t function and do normal things,” says Luther.

Through the assistance of his care team as well as fresh produce provided by Open Cupboard, Luther has been able to get back into the kitchen.

Luther and his family started looking for resources, and one of the first things they saw was Open Cupboard, and their food shelf, Today’s Harvest. Today’s Harvest, located in Oakdale, is a free market that provides fresh produce, meat, dairy, and bakery items they rescue each day from local grocery stores, farms, and other partners like Second Harvest Heartland.

“The fact that we could go as often as we needed to was a blessing.” says Luther. “It was a huge help to our family.”

Jessica Francis, Executive Director of Open Cupboard, has seen the food shelf have massive impacts on families like Luther’s as Open Cupboard continues to grow to meet the rising need in their community.

“We know the impact we have on people when they’re walking out the door. We see the sense of relief and that drives us to do what we do every day,” says Jessica.

“They’re always available,” says Luther. “Even if you need groceries dropped off, even if you don’t have enough time and can’t get out of your vehicle. There’s always a resource or option that makes it more convenient.”

Luther has become a regular at Open Cupboard, shopping for a variety of things, including apples and oranges for their his two sons.

“This is hard work, but we do it because we love it,” says Jessica. “Around everything that we’re doing, Second Harvest Heartland is our key partner standing with us.”

Luther and his care team are working on strategies to get the inflammation in his eyes reduced so he can get surgery to hopefully find a solution to his blurred vision. In the meantime, because of his care team and the extra support from Open Cupboard, Luther is back in the kitchen again, preparing some of his classics.

“We got a case of swordfish steaks and made some swordfish steak tacos. We’re just grateful all the time.”