Connecting To Your Community: How Our Ohana is Navigating The Current Pandemic With Love and Purpose

o Our Community:

This is an unprecedented time in our universe. One, which is causing great challenges for all of us. And no one is exempt from the impact.

While there is a great deal to be concerned about, there are also beautiful things happening as we connect from afar. So, I wanted to let you know what my Ohana is doing as the is challenge continues to impact our community.

First and foremost, we’re staying home. 

I can only share my compassion for all of you from the remote safety of my home. I hope you are all doing the same because I cannot speak more adamantly on how important I feel it is to concentrate our health and wellbeing. Our wellness and the safety of our families and each other are paramount.

Second, we’re continuing to connect and serve one another.

My Ohana has rallied to create and deliver daily meals for local churches and seniors. We are partnering with Fulfill NJ and Asbury Park Dinner Table to keep restaurants going and help their staff members find purpose and mental and financial balance during this challenging time.

We also had an angel donor and loyal customer rally to deliver over 5,000 masks to our community.

And Food For Thought By The Sea is currently running a charity fundraising page to keep these community projects going.

You can learn more here: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/meals-and-masks

At the end of this letter you’ll also find resources and information that I believe we can all use as we navigate this trying time.

Most importantly, I wanted to share with you my story.

Less than eight years ago my business and my family were in a similar situation to this one. But it wasn’t a health challenge plaguing us, it was a storm: SuperStorm Sandy. 

In a similar way, people rallied to support the Jersey Shore from near and far.

I was a mother of twin 5-month-old girls at the time and thought that would be the most challenging thing I would ever face as a new mother and leader.

I WAS WRONG…

But this situation has its negatives and positives... as everything in life does…. One positive is that the entire world is going through this and if we pay attention. We will become stronger and grow through what we go through because #communityisaverb. If we leave our differences behind, if we leave our fears at the door, if we do as all my spiritual leaders teach me, have compassion and kindness for each other, we will come out the other side of this stronger and more aware than ever.

The challenge is that we borrowed so much money to bring our businesses back after Sandy and we are still paying off our SBA loan.

I am scared but I try to turn that into helping in any way I can. 

Unfortunately, I have two seven-year-old girls who are struggling with not knowing enough but knowing too much about the Coronavirus. Children should not have to ever understand or go through this. 

Keeping my stress under wraps when the days are filled with deferments, forbearances and juggling how to help my staff and my community, is super challenging.

But I am choosing to rally to support my staff and my loyal friends and family. 

I am choosing to take the much-needed time to craft what the future of my business and relationships with my community and myself will look like. 

Go silent and deep in hopes that the universe will guide me. 

And if not I will end up where I land.

Please take this time to reach out and mend your community, your relationships, and most of all, your entire core.

Life gets shorter every moment. 

We become wiser when we listen. 

We become more balanced when we choose to be kind to each other and ourselves. 

We will continue to have obstacles. 

We will continue to make mistakes. 

If we didn't we wouldn’t be compassionate human beings.


I am not quite certain what my company or I will become when this all plays out. 

It is too soon to tell. 

The challenge of being a small business person juggling leadership with personal and professional relationships is part of my ongoing learning process. 

Now we all must trudge through the bureaucracy of putting our businesses back together. 

I can say this: I have an amazing team and an amazing support group of many women who guide me every day in group chats and virtual happy hours.

I have a husband and family I cherish and friends I long to hug again. 

In this instance it doesn’t just take two to tango or a village, it takes a universal awakening of compassion and kindness and a commitment to the betterment of all of us.

Marilyn's May Preview

Is It Really May Already?

May, from where I sit, seems like such an amazing month.

There’s so much going on and so much good that will come of it all. From our Vehicle For Change Program, to volunteer opportunities with the Boys and Girls Club, To my Cook Book, Mushrooms, and Moringa Supplement Line, I’m giving you the rundown on everything that’s going on for my partners and I this May.

Paint Beach-Bound Trash Cans with The Boys And Girls Club

This month you’ll find me spending my Tuesdays getting messy with the kids and crew over at the Boys and Girls Club. Bring some clothes you’re ready to  paint in and get creative with us from 4:30 til 6 at the Boys and Girls Club in Asbury Park. You don’t need to be Picasso or Monet to paint with us and the trashcans we’re designing will be used on the beach this summer!

2 River Mushroom Company and Wave Of Balance Are In Full Swing

Ready to taste the most delicious organic mushrooms of your life? Be sure to check out 2 River Mushroom Company where my partners and I are working to bring you some out-of-this-world delicious, hyper-local, organic, and gourmet mushrooms. Check out our instagram page to feast your eyes on the beautiful colors and shapes our mushrooms take, and feast on the real thing the next time you stop into Langosta.

Ready to bring your body into better balance? Not sure where to start? Check out my Moringa Supplement line, Wave Of Balance. Moringa is the tree of life and whether you top your smoothie with our powder or take the supplements each morning and afternoon, you’ll know why once you try it out for yourself.

Food And Drinks By The Water. What Else Is Spring For?

From live music to dining outside on the boardwalk, the pavilion restaurants have what you’re looking for as the weather warms up. Grab a taco and a margarita at Pop’s, see your favorite local band play at Asbury Park Yacht Club (APYC) or grab everything from sushi, to lobster to curry  at Langosta Lounge .

Have You Heard About Our Food Truck?

If you haven’t heard of our Food For Thought Food Truck, you can learn more here. The best way I can explain it is that we’re building a vehicle for change. Staffed with locals, able to provide just about any type of menu you can imagine, and with all proceeds going to a charity of your choice, we’re going to be rolling in to your next event to make a real difference in the community. We’re so excited to bring this literal vehicle for change to you soon.

But we can’t do it without you.

To learn more and to donate please visit the Food For Thought By The Sea page here.

One Last Thing…

Whether you’re ready to get serious about your wellness with my Wave of Balance products or want to give back to your community by donating your time with the Boys and Girls Club,  I’d love to have you get involved and make things happen with me this May!

Nicaragua

Nicaragua: Beautiful Memories, Wildlife Conservation Adventures, And A Clear Clean Water Community Mission

Nicaragua is a place that continues to hold a revered place in my heart and in the hearts of my family.

I fell in love with Nicaragua after connecting with a friend who had family there. My family and I have grown closer to these friends and our memories with them are some of my favorites. As our families became closer, their niece who has traveled with us each time we are in Nicaragua, would watch the girls for us when needed. Needless to say, our twin daughters have been going to Nicaragua with us, of course, since they were very young and we know they’ve grown to love our trips there as much as we have.

As with any place that holds your heart, I’ve become truly committed to the people of Nicaragua. We bought land there and my non-profits have worked to enhance the lives of the people there as well. Food For Thought By The Sea worked with Waves For Water to supply water filters to the people of Nicaragua. There is a Section of Waves For Water called Restaurants For Water on their site and this organization serves to deliver these filters. There are projects going on all along the Pacific coast there. From Chancletas in the north to Tola in the south and along the Caribbean coast, in the jungle outside of Blue Fields.

I’ve traveled there to connect with the indigenous people of Nicaragua that speak forgotten languages, live in places with no automobiles, and have forged self-sustaining cultures complete with shopping and all manners of daily living.

I’ve traveled to a research center where they are studying the tapir, an animal that looks to me like wild boar with a horse head. They’re almost extinct, and I was lucky enough to see the project to get them to reproduce and grow their population. These intriguing animals are almost prehistoric looking and without this project, they’d be completely gone.

Chris Jordan was one of the people who work on the project and he traveled with me. I was soon grateful for his company because it was an adventure just to get there: We took a boat through the pearl river, and the boat engine died. We found ourselves nowhere near anything, truly terrified, with no cell service. We overcame our fear and got the engine going. Moving again we went to Pearl Lagoon for lunch (a delicious and well-earned fish meal) and then took another boat to the jungle. From there we took a horseback ride for 45 minutes and hiked from there another 45 minutes to the research center. After the research center we too another 45-minute horseback ride and 45-minute hike to where they were bringing the water-filters to a school.

The excursions were quite exciting but there were other joys on the trips I took to Nicaragua, including the exposure to a completely new culture. I loved going to surf and enjoy the beautiful beaches, watching volcanoes at night erupting in the distance. Climbing those volcanoes on the lake during the day was also nearly indescribable.

Lake Nicaragua is the only fresh water lake with oceanic animal life, sharks, swordfish and the like and it is one of the most breathtaking places to which I’ve ever been.

 Whether we spent the day sailing, hiking, or slack-lining between palm trees outside a local bar, we often found ourselves enjoying huge fresh-caught fish at lunch and dinner. While I enjoyed my fair share of fish and other fare, no trip of mine is ever truly complete without exploring and learning to make a local specialty or two. Nicaragua has so much to offer in this department and so much of it will be new to an American palate.  On my trips I love to learn to make a local dish and in Nicaragua that meant Nacatamales and Pili’s cheese cake. I learned to make them from Antonia, the woman who cares for the house that I rent there.  Pili taught me to make her passionfruit cheesecake/panna cotta hybrid in the kitchen of her own restaurant I brought that recipe and memory back and you can find it served at Langosta Lounge in the summer.

Nicaragua is an infinitely beautiful and memorable place for my family and I. It is a place where we go to explore and enjoy and to be of service and we would encourage you to make your own journey there. Should you take my advice, I promise you’ll never look at palm trees, volcanoes, clean drinking water or cheesecake the same way again.