Little Daniel is out to prove that he is the toughest and bravest of all his siblings. As the youngest in the family, he has a need for power and speed, ready to fall to the ground to do a series of pushups when he is not running laps around the makeshift church and pantry of Denver’s His Hands Ministries.
The five-year-old started coming with his family to the pantry during the fall of 2008, finding that His Hands Ministries offered a safe place to play as well as to get food. Daniel’s parents, who have often been weary of the youth violence in their neighborhood, are glad to let all six of their kids attend the Food Bank of the Rockies agency for after school activities and church services.
Daniel’s mother, Santana, relies on the large boxes of fresh produce and meat she receives each week from the family. Since her husband lost his job with a railroad inventory company, the family has often struggled to come up with one meal a day. The food stamps she receives don’t stretch as far as they did when her children, ages five to fourteen, were receiving free meals through their schools’ lunch programs.
Daniel’s ambition to be a cop, a fire truck, and an ambulance all derive from his mother’s determined drive. Santana is putting herself through school by working at a discount store, training at night to one day work in a hospital preparing medical bills and codes. She dreams of a time when she and her husband can move Daniel and his older brothers and sisters in to a ranch house on a sprawling farm. Wherever this young family is headed, they know they have the support of His Hands Ministries to get them there.
Learn more about Food Bank of the Rockies.