Rising Stars: Meet Christina Cheng-Patel

Hi Christina, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a pediatric clinical researcher and the mother of 2 boys. I believe in the power of community and the importance of education, experience, and empathy. My kiddos have always served alongside me, and I am doing my best to raise good humans and encourage them to think of solutions and take action when they see a need. 8 years ago, my oldest asked what children at shelters do for Christmas trees since they don’t have homes of their own yet. We brainstormed together and decided to host an annual mini tree decorating event at our local shelter. We rallied our community together and asked people to make mini ornaments with their families or friends during the holidays (this is the spending quality time part) and then donate those ornaments to us to use for our tree event (this is the spirit of giving part). And we have been hosting this event every year since. 4 years ago, my youngest saw a homeless gentleman on a street corner and wanted to give him water. I did not have any with me at the time and told him we would buy water and come back. We bought water and food but could not locate the person again. We decided to buy more water and food and distribute directly to encampments in downtown Dallas. That 1 bottle of water that my youngest wanted to give led to over 7,000 bottles of water, over a thousand hot meals, countless other snacks, and essential supplies and we are still going strong serving about 50-100 each week. I sincerely believe that a little kindness goes a long way and I am grateful that my boys can see the good in our community every time we receive donations and they can understand the ability that they have to make someone’s day a little brighter when they distribute something as simple as an ice pop on a hot day or hot coffee on a cold day. A month ago, we officially formed Under My Umbrella, Inc., our 501c3 nonprofit community service organization that the kids and I operate out of our garage and living room.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For me, when I get frustrated with life, I always try to re-focus my anger/disappointment/sadness and turn it into something positive. I am trying to teach my boys to pivot when something isn’t productive and turn that energy into something that is helpful. If the boys are feeling down or sad about a test grade, we go hit the streets and serve food to people in need. Doing outreach has made me a better person and better parent.

Our weekly outreach in particular has been challenging at times with Dallas traffic and the boys’ school work commitments but they have learned about things like time management, accountability, responsibility, and leadership. And they will actually choose to serve and make time for it even if it means they have to do their homework in the car on our way downtown or stay up a bit later once we get back home to do homework. When you operate out of your home and car, you learn to adapt and be creative. We wanted to be able to serve hot foods like oatmeal, coffee, and ramen from our car so we asked our local Starbucks for hot water containers. The first winter we tried this, we didn’t realize there was a difference between regular coffee and instant and we used the wrong kind. But we learned and the following week, our mobile coffee service was up and running. We have had to figure out what works and what doesn’t using trial and error and patience. But we always try again and we learn and adapt and grow.

I think the take home lesson is that if you want to do something whether it’s outreach or starting a business or a fitness goal, you’ve got to take that first step and act. And learn along the way. And stop thinking that your effort or contribution is too small or it doesn’t make a difference because it absolutely does. Think of the cumulative effects. We started partnering with small local businesses who wanted to donate 50 meals/drinks a week back in June. We recently just distributed our 1000th hot meal and drink!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love that it is truly a grassroots collaborative community effort. I believe that small acts of kindness and mindful actions can be very impactful and we do our best to show that and encourage our community to get involved. When I come home to donations from strangers on my porch, it’s like Christmas. You may not know me in person, but you know my porch. I will get messages from a friend of a friend and this person has leftovers from a catered dinner the night before and can I use the leftovers. A local mom buys a multi-box of chips, but the child only likes certain flavors, so the rest is donated for me to make snack packs for the homeless. Sometimes people will say to me that they don’t have the monetary means to help but they really want to contribute so I try to think of various ways people can help in any capacity they can. For example, simply saving plastic take-out utensils may not seem like much, but it helps tremendously. We use utensils to serve our hot meals and this saves the restaurant donor from having to provide utensils when we have those donations. We have had children decorate our shelf-stable meal packs with encouraging messages and pictures and that’s a way for our little ones to get involved. Recently we have become a resource center for donations. If we receive donations, we are unable to use for our outreach efforts like children’s clothing, we reach out to NPOs that are able to utilize those donations. Nothing is wasted. And we try to upcycle anything we can. Many of our donors are women and minority-owned small businesses. That’s something that I want to highlight as well…small local businesses giving back in big ways to our communities in need. Under My Umbrella is a family effort. A community effort. A woman-led, child-led effort. And I think that is just so cool.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
My 12-year-old has set up a website for us: www.under-my-umbrella.org

We also keep our FB updated with our weekly efforts and released our first monthly newsletter 10/31.

FB: https://www.facebook.com/UnderMyUmbrellaDFW

Email: UnderMyUmbrellaDFW@gmail.com