Giveback
Cabinet Refresh Believes that we need to make an impact in the world where we live, in whatever way we can, even if it’s just a little bit a day at a time.
Cabinet Refresh believes in faith, family, and freedom and does our best to run a business based on Christian values. You may find this on an individual basis for each one of us here at Cabinet Refresh. We are a diverse group with a variety of pet projects!
Some of us at Cabinet Refresh work with the homeless in the local Los Angeles area, some of us with with fostering pets, some of us with the elderly. Here in Los Angeles with the homeless situation food banks have also become a place where we like to put our energy as well. We don’t want to see anyone going hungry. Personally, I carry a bag of shoes, water, and clothing to give out as needed when I see someone without those items.
In the past, we have supported a local Southern California based shelter for battered women and children, also Cabinet Refresh has supported anti trafficking network and safe houses. At times it has been Smile Train which takes care of children around the world born with cleft palates. On one trip we went to work with an orphanage in Ecuador where we built a storage house for food and supplies, on one trip we worked at a teen pregnancy center in Santiago, Chile.
One of our favorite charities for the past several years is Children’s Feeding Network ( http://www.childrensfeedingnetwork.org ). Cabinet Refresh gives a monthly donation to help with their work in teaching food independence to many underprivileged people, through farming teaching personal farming and teaching Biblical principals of sharing and giving as well.
This relationship started when my mentor, Dr. Daniel Daves moved down to Panama to set up micro farming programs. He has a personal mission to show people how to be food independent to avoid going hungry with whatever happens in the world. He lectures often in places like Fiji, the Bahamas and several countries in Africa, teaching food independence.
One of the most challenging years in Panama was when the “pandemic” started, and there was a full shut down, as they do not have bail out money and they don’t have unemployment in the way that we have it here in the United States. In Panama, if you are registered in the food business, you were able to have full mobility, at the same time, everyone else was not able to go out for days at a time.
It was a desperate time and Panama set in place many restrictions for people to leave their homes, and many of the indigenous were literally days away from starvation. Many of these people work that particular day for the food for their families. It was not only the indigenous that were desperate, but also retirees and people with pets, as they could not get pet food.
During this time, Dr. Daniel Daves would load his truck to the brim, full capacity, with rice, beans, dehydrated vegetable powder made in their own facility, and pet food. He literally saved many people during this extended period.
Dr. Daniel Daves realized years ago that’s approximately 40% of all food that gets produced never makes it to market either because it is over ripe, or rots on the shelves. He had the realization that if he gathered the food that was currently ripe, dehydrate it, and package it, he could give food that was densely nutritious and would have many years of shelf life if packaged correctly.
Children’s Feeding Network has set up large dehydrators, made in 40 foot containers, and dehydrate these vegetables to add to rice or beans, so that children are getting real ‘dense’ nutrition! This process is currently working, but being perfected. Every day they are processing hundreds of pounds of vegetables.
Dr. Daves has offered symposiums around the world, for instance in Bahama and the Fiji islands teaching people that have been dependent upon the food being imported from other countries which makes it quite expensive, while, at the same time, sitting on good land that can be producing independently. In Fiji for instance, they were importing lettuce from Australia that would be several dollars a head when it made it to the market. Dr. Daves found some key people, shifted their paradigm of dependence and now they are producing many of these vegetables on their own.
During my friendship with Dr. Daves, I have experienced he and his wife Tracy, working tirelessly to feed hungry children and elderly. Lately they have started a program of raising chicks into egg producing hens for poor families, this has proven to be a winner.
Dr. Daves works tirelessly to educate, feed, and share hope, and we at Cabinet Refresh love standing with him and his team to better the world and share love through food. Having been to Panama many times, I have had the unique opportunity to work hand in hand in their global effort and global vision.
For more information, Dr. Daniel Daves has written a couple of books on food production, which I highly recommend, Food Is Power: A Companion Leadership Guide To The Global Revolution , and another Global Food Revolution: “Helping Humanity Through The 21st Century Global Food Crisis”, both will awaken you to the reality of global food distribution.
I, personally, remember growing up in the 70s when my great grand parents actually had a farm in Arkansas, complete with a root cellar. They worked all spring and summer to can and store food that they grew! There have been times in my own life when I had a garden at my home and how rewarding it is to pick from the garden direct to the table!
Whether we as a community learn it from men like Daniel or somewhere else, let’s all get together and get behind food independence and food sharing!