Welcome to the March Newsletter! As the new month blows in let’s look forward to the flowers peeking out to remind us of our own resilience. Together, let’s cultivate the garden of our determination while we celebrate the achievements of our volunteers in February. Last month, our kitchen received $5,022 in contributions which they in turn supplemented into $8,913 worth of donations this month, translating into an incredible 1,569 meals delivered to community members in need. Thank you to all of our volunteers and supporters for their donations, we are continually humbled by your assistance. It is greatly appreciated.
Community Spotlight:
Blue Zones
Partners for Wellbeing, United Way of Delaware, Delaware Health and Social Services, and Beebe Healthcare are bringing together civic and community leaders to work with Blue Zones to improve well-being for residents of Sussex County. Through community well-being enhancements, they are working to make a marked difference in the outcomes and cost of healthcare and transform the health of this region, setting up residents to live long, healthy, happy lives.
Join the movement that will make healthy choices easier in Sussex County. Together, we can make our community a healthier, happier place to live, work, and play.
Sunflowers have been cultivated for over 4,500 years. This is partly because the entirety of the sunflower plant is edible, so the leaves, stalks, and roots could all be used as food. They were milled to create flour, their seeds were roasted and eaten, sunflower oil was used in cooking, pigments could also be used for dye, and the stalk could be used in construction.
In Greek mythology, the sunflower is associated with the sun god Helios and his admirer Clytie. Clytie watched her love Helios move as the sun across the sky in his golden chariot for so long without food or water that she eventually turned into a sunflower, which is why they face and follow the sun through the day. Well, that or they’re heliotropic.
Sunflowers have a remarkable ability to absorb toxins, including toxic metals and radiation. Following nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, scientists planted millions of sunflowers to help the land recover. Similarly, they’ve also been planted in areas with high concentrations of lead. Talk about a superpower, they’re called “hyperaccumulators” which means they can absorb much more of these contaminants than other plants.
And sunflowers are just one big flower, right? Wrong! Each flowerhead is actually made up of up to two thousand florets. These tiny flowers are packed full of nectar, making them a tasty treat for bees as well.
Sunflowers represent resilience and peace, as well as strength in difficult conditions. They grow tall in harsh weather and turn toward the sun with unwavering determination. Sunflowers remind us that no matter how tough the circumstances may be, we have the inner strength to rise above and thrive.
This spring, if you are perhaps inspired to plant yourself some sunflowers, we hope that you will take a moment to look upon them with a new enjoyment of their quiet strength in the face of adversity.
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