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photo by steed media service
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Vice President, Mocha Moms/San Fernando Valley Chapter
Mocha
Moms, an organization for stay-at-home mothers of color, founded to
“encourage women who are making parenting a priority in their lives,”
can offer the support you need to become an even better mom. As vice
president and membership coordinator of the San Fernando Valley chapter
of Mocha Moms, LaShawna Fitzpatrick-Hughes helps celebrate the
importance of motherhood across the country and couldn’t be happier
with everything Mocha Moms stands for.
“The image of black
women is not always positive [in] our country, so I think it’s very
important to show the positive aspects of being a black woman because
we are the center of our families, so it’s extremely important that we
are recognized and we’re appreciated because we are the foundation of
the black community,” explains the mother of two.
Fitzpatrick-Hughes
strongly feels that gatherings such as Mocha Moms’ national conference
boost black mothers’ capital exponentially in the community. “The
contributions and sacrifices that we make for our families are
sometimes not recognized, so I think this is a perfect opportunity to
come together and to appreciate what motherhood is because without
mothers, there wouldn’t be life,” she says.
Fitzpatrick-Hughes,
who is also a McDonald’s Quality Correspondent, was one of six moms
chosen out of 6,000 by McDonald’s to visit various processing sites to
get a firsthand look at how the food that millions of children love is
actually created. She sees her role with McDonald’s as complementary to
her mission as a Mocha Mom. “I think there a lot of misconceptions out
there about fast food, so when I walk in to my local McDonald’s and I’m
ordering a happy meal for my kid, I know what I’m giving them and it’s
extremely important to me,” she says. – jason thompson
