[KHTS] – Over 100 people gathered at the Valencia Country Club for the Farm to Table Brunch and Silent Auction event on Sunday morning in an effort to raise awareness for The 2020 Mom Project.

Around 10:30 a.m., 140 men and women came together to participate in the silent auction, hear performances and talks from several speakers and taste all natural food from local farms.

“It’s our first event and we are interested in promoting health so we felt like Farm to Table was the perfect way to do that given we are just miles away from local farms,” said Joy Burkhard, founder and executive director of 2020 Mom. “It’s a good turnout for our first event so we are excited.”

The keynote speakers for the event, Apricot Lane Farms, have been featured on Oprah’s OWN network and also spoke about their experience as new parents.

“It’s great to be part of an event that talks about nutrition, farming and motherhood all in the same event,” said John Chester, keynote speaker and co-owner of Apricot Lane Farm.  “Those things really are a part of a healthy existence.”

In addition to benefiting Mom 2020, the event also benefited Single Mothers Outreach and L.A. Baby Buggy by collecting new diapers for a diaper drive which will be continuing through the rest of May and a book drive for babies.

Diapers can be dropped off at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital or Legacy Christian Academy.

“I think [my favorite part of the event] is having all these new people come to our nonprofit as supporters and also for the cause,”  said Burkhard. “Most often people have no idea moms are suffering so much in silence so that’s super exciting to be able to bring the message to more people.”

About The 2020 Mom Project

The 2020 Mom Project (“The Project”) is an urgent national call to action that sets forth an aggressive new path for solving what some have called one of the biggest public health concerns of our time: the silent maternal mental health crisis which impacts up to 20% of expecting and new moms.

The project seeks to bring about change by the year 2020, starting with the insured population.

Because of a complicated set of long-standing barriers, expecting and new moms are not consistently screened for emotional problems and therefore are not diagnosed and offered treatment, and consequently these moms and families largely suffer in silence.  Research suggests that when moderate to severe cases of maternal mental health disorders are left untreated, not only does the mother’s health suffer, but so does her infants’, the stability of her marriage or partner relationship, and the long-term health and well being of all of her children.

Rather than relying solely on the OBGYN, as in our current system, and recognizing that most moms give birth in a hospital (what we call “Hospital as the Hub”) and that now many more American families will have health insurance, the 2020 Mom Project invites other stakeholders, such as hospitals & health insurance companies, to make manageable system changes.  More moms and families can then be educated, triggers can be reduced, screening and diagnosis can occur, and help can be more easily identified when a mom suffers from a maternal mental health disorder.