Mustard Seed helps families on Giving Tuesday

ORLANDO, Fla. - On this Giving Tuesday, Central Florida’s only furniture bank, the Mustard Seed, is helping deserving families get what they need before the holidays.

To keep that mission going, they are also asking for more donations.

It’s been a rough year for the Moise family.

“This year, I was diagnosed with cancer,” Jennica Moise said. “I lost my job going through surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and it’s trying.”

Battling ovarian cancer and getting better is a full-time job on top of caring for their six children.

“It’s a blessing we got a place to stay,” she said.

While they don’t have much, her husband of 19 years is doing what he can by driving for Uber and finding odd jobs.

“Try not to miss a step,” Nick Moise said. “Make sure she’s comfortable as she can be and the kids don’t have to feel like something is missing at home."

But some of the basics were missing.

“Beds, dresser, jackets for the cold weather right now, dishes, a couch, dining room table,” Jennica Moise said.

All things that the Mustard Seed is providing free of charge.

“I woke up and I was excited about today,” she said. “Some days are tough, but today is a really good day.”

Loading a cart with clothes and sticking tape on furniture, the Moise family is also lucky to be able to get a new dresser. 

It’s an item that is hard to come by at the warehouse.

“We have a minimum of six families per day, so we need at least six dressers,” Kathy Baldwin, the executive director of Mustard Seed, said. “That’s one per family.”

But on this Giving Tuesday, employees from DDC and CESCO built and donated 20 dressers.

“God bless everybody who gives because, I mean, families like us, we really need it,” Jennica Moise said. “It’s a blessing.”