Extending Our Reach into the Community
Our cancer treatment efforts begin within our walls, but our prevention measures extend past our front doors and into surrounding cities and towns through community health initiatives. With our new teaching kitchen, we will offer accessible, educational programs that not only aide during cancer treatment and recovery, but prevent many cancers from occurring in the first place. We are also collaborating with the Harvard School of Public Health, focusing on data collection to identify and better understand healthcare disparities in our rural communities. This way, we can create equitable solutions around prevention for the most vulnerable and at risk among us. Everyone deserves access to screenings and services, surgical intervention and survivorship regardless of their status or resources. We commit to making every effort to reach everyone who needs our care.
Introducing the Teaching Kitchen
Nutritious food is powerful medicine. Through our new Teaching Kitchen, we will offer hands-on education to cancer patients and their families, helping them accelerate their healing journey and carry a healthy lifestyle back into their homes.
When it comes to caring for our patients battling cancer, meeting their needs is of the utmost importance. One of our first needs as human beings is proper nourishment. Our new Teaching Kitchen will serve as a platform to explore food in a collaborative and engaging environment for our patients and their families. Through the Teaching Kitchen, we will build confidence and culinary skill sets, empowering them for a healthier lifestyle they can implement in their homes. This educational laboratory will be a hands-on experience that will show our patients how to eat to prevent cancer, how to eat while going through treatment and, for family members, how to cook for loved ones fighting this awful disease. Our Teaching Kitchen will complement services already in place to promote education and prevention, including a Community Garden of Hope and our OSF Care-A-Van mobile health initiative.
