Dear community,

December 6 is Colorado Gives Day, and this year, I hope you will consider giving to Metro Caring.

My name is Gloria Padilla Sanchez. I’m a graduate of Metro Caring’s Cocina y Nutrición Spanish cooking class and the Spanish Diabetes Self-Management Program, Diabetes Entre Amigos. Those classes changed my life.

Twenty years ago, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. For years, I struggled to understand how to cope with this confusing disease. My condition got so serious that I started to lose my vision, and my high blood pressure eventually caused my kidneys to fail.

Then I found out about Metro Caring’s classes in Spanish, and they really helped improve my health. Every week for Cocina y Nutrición, we gathered in Metro Caring’s kitchen to learn new skills, cook delicious food, and share stories in community. The camaraderie I found in this class helped me build a support system, learn new ways to eat healthy, and make friends.

In Diabetes entre Amigos, I met weekly with other individuals who were living with the same challenges as me. The class is taught by Metro Caring staff, a registered dietitian, and a trained facilitator also living with diabetes, which brings multiple perspectives and experiences into the program to help each of us create a customized action plan that’s right for us. I learned a lot about different nutrients—carbohydrates, proteins, fats and oils—and how much of each I should try to eat.

This was the first time the class was offered in Spanish. Trying to access healthcare information when you’re still learning English is incredibly difficult in the United States. Metro Caring helps me feel comfortable to communicate in the language of my heart so I can participate, ask questions, and get the care I need.

Having the class in other languages also helps bring people of similar cultural traditions together. Sometimes certain diet plans tell us we must give up our favorite foods or only eat one type of cuisine. But I had classmates who shared new ways to prepare important dishes from my culture in a way that meets my dietary needs. For example, one member of the class shared how she makes tortillas out of flax, and another shared how to make cauliflower tamales.

When you support Metro Caring on Colorado Gives Day, you support our community. There aren’t a lot of places that offer these kinds of programs in other languages. Your help ensures Metro Caring can expand access to important nutrition and health programming that changes lives like mine.

To donate, please visit www.ColoradoGives.org/MetroCaring.

After 20 years of struggling to understand my disease, I finally feel healthy. And even more important, now I feel prepared to help my grandson Simon learn to manage his diabetes. Thank you for supporting our community.

With much appreciation,

Gloria Padilla Sanchez
Graduate, Cocina y Nutrición & Diabetes Self-Management Program