Support the Heart Center

How You Can Support and Donate to the Heart Center

At the Heart Center, our No. 1 priority is taking care of patients. Heart treatments and procedures typically require long stays in the hospital, which means our heart patients and their families often stay at the center for days, weeks or even months at a time.

We aim to make our patients and their families feel at home during this time by helping take care of their meals, as well as providing toys and books for our patients and their siblings. This would not be possible without the incredible donors who support our programs, such as:

Kids at Heart

Kids at Heart is a support program for parents, caregivers and families of patients with congenital heart defects who are treated at Children's. It offers social, emotional and educational support programs, including a monthly Family Dinner with a presentation, to help Children's heart families inside and outside of the hospital setting. Through Kids at Heart, heart families are able to connect and support one another as they navigate what it is like to have a child with a congenital heart defect.

For all donations, complete this form.

Donate to Kids at Heart today.

Feed the Heart Program

The Feed the Heart program provides meals, snacks and drinks for heart patients and their families during hospital stays so that families don't have to worry about food and can focus on caring for their children. Since its inception in 2015, Feed the Heart has served meals to more than 20,000 people. It is 100 percent funded by the generosity of donors.

Support Feed the Heart by:

1. Donating to Feed the Heart.
2. Donating to the Feed the Heart pantry. The pantry is available to heart families during their stay at the Heart Center and provides drinks, snacks and nonperishable food items that families can access throughout the day.
   • Suggested food items you can donate to the Feed the Heart pantry include:
     • Bottled water
     • Canned soft drinks
     • Canned or plastic bottles of iced tea, lemonade, sparkling water
     • Individual plastic bottles of juice – No juice boxes or SunnyD please
     • Single serving cups of macaroni and cheese, soup, pasta, ramen noodles or stew (microwaveable)
     • Breakfast bars and granola bars
     • Individually packaged peanut butter or cheese crackers
     • Single serving bags of chips, pretzels, cookies or crackers
     • Single servings of instant oatmeal or grits
     • Fruit or applesauce cups
     • Individually packaged breakfast pastries, muffins, donuts or Pop-Tarts
     • Individual boxes of cereal
     • Snack sized candy bars
     • Coffee K cups
   • You can schedule a time to drop off donations at the hospital or choose to donate items from our Feed the Heart Wish List.
3. Providing a Feed the Heart meal. Feed the Heart meals are served every Tuesday evening in our Heart Center.

Please note all food items must be store-bought, pre-packed, non-perishable and microwaveable. Please be mindful of expiration dates as we are unable to use expired items. Please label your donations with the month and year of the expiration date, if possible.

For all donations, complete this form.

For more information, email kidsatheart@choa.org.

Feed the Mind Program

Upon admission to the Heart Center, babies from 0 to 12 months old will receive a bag containing two age-appropriate books so that family members and caretakers can begin reading to them. Families will also receive an age-appropriate developmental toy to assist with their child's brain health. 

Reading to infants and babies is critical to their neurodevelopment and helps them build communication, listening and memory skills at an early age. By the time babies reach their first birthdays, they will have learned all the sounds needed to speak their native language. The more stories you read aloud, the more words your baby will hear, which will improve your child's speaking abilities.

Support Feed the Mind by:

1. Donating to Feed the Mind.
2. Purchasing books and toys from our Feed the Mind Wish List and either scheduling a time to drop off items at the hospital or sending the items directly to the hospital.

For all donations, complete this form.

Feed the Mom Program

The Feed the Mom program is a postpartum support program for mothers and babies in the Heart Center. Feed the Mom supports postpartum mothers in the CICU as their babies are often admitted directly from the birth hospital, which can delay bonding between a mother and her baby. Feed the Mom will help mothers and infants by providing emotional support, mental health resources, breastfeeding support and donor-funded care packages that include an encouraging note from a heart mom who has been through a similar experience.

We also offer a Heart Mom Support Group once a month.

All goods and services provided by the Feed the Mom Program are donor-funded.

Support Feed the Mom by:

1. Donating to Feed the Mom.
2. Purchasing care package items for new moms from the Feed the Mom Wish List and either scheduling a time to drop off items at the hospital or sending the items directly to the hospital.
3. If you are a heart mom whose child was treated in our CICU and you would like to write a supportive note to a new mom, please complete this form. 

For all donations, complete this form.

Heart Center Wish List

If you're interested in supporting the Heart Center by donating toys, books, games and other essential items, we encourage you to purchase items from our Heart Center Wish List.

Single Ventricle Clinic Wish List

Infants born with single ventricle heart conditions have only one fully developed pumping chamber (ventricle) in their heart, while a structurally normal heart has two fully developed pumps. Though their hearts are formed in their own special way before birth, there is nothing abnormal about children with single ventricle heart conditions.

It is our job as the Single Ventricle Program at Children’s Heart Center to reroute blood flow through a series of three heart surgeries to ensure proper circulation to the lungs and the body. While the surgeons are doing masterful work with their hands inside the heart, our multidisciplinary team consisting of physicians, nurse practitioners, dieticians, speech language pathologists, physical therapists, neurodevelopmental psychologists and social workers help to ensure not just longevity, but quality of life for infants and their families. Our goal is for these infants to grow into thriving toddlers, children, adolescents, teens and ultimately adults, all the while being proud of their scars and their stories.

Through a newly developed multidisciplinary Single Ventricle Clinic, focused specifically on infants with single ventricle heart conditions during a high risk period of time between their first and second heart surgeries but also during a period of time of rapid brain development, we strive to ease parental stress by providing emotional support, simplify an often complex home life by focusing on feeding and development, while keeping these tiny hearts safe and healthy.

If you're interested in supporting the Single Ventricle Clinic by donating items that will help our therapists treat Single Ventricle patients, we encourage you to purchase items from our Single Ventricle Clinic Wish List.

Cardiac Acute Care Unit Clothing Wish List

If you're interested in supporting the Heart Center by clothing our patients need during long stays in our Cardiac Acute Care Unit, we encourage you to purchase items from our Clothing Wish List.

Other Ways to Support the Heart Center

1. Assemble care packages and comfort items for Heart Center patient families
2. Provide meals or snacks for Heart Center staff
3. Email kidsatheart@choa.org for more information

Mail a check

If you prefer to support our programs by sending a check, mail it to:

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Support Center
Kids at Heart
Attn: Alison Mueller
1575 Northeast Expressway
Support II, 6th Floor
Atlanta, GA 30329

For all donations, complete this form.