Pleasanton nonprofit Culinary Angels delivers healthy meals made with love to recovering cancer patients
PLEASANTON -- A nonprofit organization in the East Bay is dedicated to bringing healthy, organic meals to help the healing process of cancer patients in need.
Lisa McNaney is delivering something tasty in a bag put together by a village of volunteers.
"It is seven years in and we have served over 13,000 beautiful organic healing meals," explained McNaney.
The magic provided by the nonprofit Culinary Angels begins in a Pleasanton commercial kitchen.
"All of our wonderful volunteers are prepping it. They are dicing, chopping, peeling and coming together, making soup and bone broth and everything we need for the foundation of our meal," said McNaney.
"We have a morning huddle," said Kathy Griggs, who works as a Culinary Angels volunteer coordinator. Sge said, "During our huddle we often talk about what we are cooking that day and so forth. This week we reached an all-time high. We are at 119 meals. "
The labor of love that drives Culinary Angels stems from the personal experiences of McNaney, who founded the organization.
"I have unfortunately had a ton of cancer in my family. I am a breast cancer survivor, and we lost my mom to ovarian cancer. I have been through a lot of doctor's appointments and medical treatment facilities. And I recognized that our medical teams are not talking about nutrition and what you can do to really fortify your body when you are going thru a harsh treatment, " said McNaney.
"I remind folks in emails and in person is how much what we do matters. We get thank you's every week from recipients and the caregivers," Griggs said during a huddle.
The delivery on this particular day was for cancer patient Kathy Kupper and her caregiver; it was a package full of hope, love and care.
"Food is one of the hardest things when you are going through this," said Kupper. "It is overwhelming so to know what goes into it every bite I take I feel it and it is huge. It comes from these angels with so much love," said Kupper.
Culinary Angels is holding the organizations annual Glitz and Gratitude fundraising auction and gala at the Garré Vineyard & Winery on Saturday, Oct. 21. Tickets are still available. For more information on the nonprofit and how you can volunteer, visit the Culinary Angels website.
