Baldwin Park couple brings comfort to Ronald McDonald House

Ten Baldwin Park moms mill about around an oversized kitchen island chopping onions, shredding lettuce and scooping salsa. When one of them can’t find a knife, or the right size bowl, questions get directed to Angela Cohen.

It’s not her kitchen, but it might as well be. On the last Friday of every month for the past three years, Angela and her husband Jason have taken over the kitchen at the Ronald McDonald House at Florida Hospital cooking meals for the guests in need.

In July, Angela took a second shift in the kitchen bringing the moms of the Baldwin Park Kids Club along to set up a taco bar for families staying at the house, hungry after long days spent in the hospital.

By sparing just a couple hours spent in the kitchen, Jason said, they can make a big difference in someone’s day through the comforts of a home-cooked meal.

“We can help provide them with a little outlet to relax and escape from what they’re going through,” he said.

Lou Ann DeVoogd, president/CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Florida, said daily meals provided by community members help add to the “comfort and care” Ronald McDonald Houses strive to provide to families staying at their facilities. The rooms of the House at Florida Hospital are at capacity filled with families who have children receiving treatment at hospitals and medical facilities in Orlando.

“It’s because of the Angelas and the Jasons of the world that we’re able to do what we do,” DeVoogd said. “We couldn’t do this without our community.”

Angela and Jason joined the Ronald McDonald community three years ago after being offered a bed at a Ronald McDonald House in Miami when they traveled down south with their then 9-month-old daughter Quinn to have surgery for a rare congenital eye condition. The Cohens had family they could stay with while Quinn was in the hospital, so they turned down the offer. But the opportunity got them thinking about what they would have done if they hadn’t had a family safety net nearby the hospital.

“It sort of planted a seed,” Angela said.

At the time, Angela and Jason had recently started their own boutique recruiting business, Cyon Inc., founded with a strong focus on giving back to the community through a program they called Cyon Cares.

When they asked the local Ronald McDonald House how they could get involved, volunteer coordinators suggested the organization’s Share-A-Meal program where volunteers come into the house to cook lunch or dinner for the guests.

What started with one lunch turned into a monthly tradition. The Cohens added cooking monthly dinners at the Ronald McDonald House to their volunteering schedule, in between serving as big sister and big brother for kids in need through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program.

Shortly after, they added another service to their plate: taking over the duty of delivering snack packs from the Florida Hospital Ronald McDonald House down to Nemours Children’s Hospital for families in need. For Quinn’s third birthday, instead of gifts, partygoers were asked to bring snacks to fill the packs. And, on her birthday, the family of three delivered them to families taking up residence at Nemours.

“It’s something so small, but there’s families we’ve seen who need and benefit from it so much,” Angela said.

“You’re directly having an impact on the people you’re providing the service for,” Jason added.

So when the opportunity arose, with a new Ronald McDonald House now being built by Nemours, for the Cohens to financially sponsor a room at the new facility – they jumped at it.

When the $6.5 million facility opens in the spring of 2016, families will find comfort in the “Cyon + Cohen House” room.

In June, the Cohens hosted the first annual Virtual Golf Classic benefiting Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Florida at CaddyShanks in Baldwin Park, raising $10,000 for the organization.

Since first getting involved three years ago, Angela and Jason have made it their mission to rally their local community to give back to the Ronald McDonald House in any way they can – whether that’s dropping off snacks or nonperishable items to be passed out to guests, or bringing together a group of Baldwin Park moms to cook a meal.

“It’s the Angela and the Jason front – the volunteers – that are going to help carry us on forever,” DeVoogd said. “It’s a community effort.”