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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

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