TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Dishing Out Comfort

ADVERTISEMENT

By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 15, 2007

TRINITY - Debi Clendening has lived through it: the lost hair, the weakened body, the sobbing because your life seems out of your hands.

She knows what it's like to battle cancer.

Clendening also knows that, for chemotherapy patients, the last thing on their minds is what to cook for dinner.

So, every month, Clendening and her friends get together to cook up big batches of food - soups, roasted pork loin, herb and cranberry stuffed chicken - to give the Florida Cancer Institute in New Port Richey to distribute to chemotherapy patients.

It's one small way to show thanks for the help she received while battling breast cancer.

"I've had so much support, and so many people don't," said Clendening, 49, of New Port Richey. "I wanted to let them know somebody cares."

These mini-cooking parties take place at Trinity Main Dish, a meal preparation business with a professional kitchen that cuts out the prep work - the cutting, the chopping - and lets customers assemble fresh meals to go. On the nights it hosts Clendening and her friends, the Main Dish staff provides soft drinks, wine and appetizers. The participants pay to prepare about four entrees each, and the entrees make between four and eight meals. Then they choose how many meals to take home and how many to donate to the Florida Cancer Institute.

At the last party, the crew from James M. Marlowe Elementary School, where Clendening works in the office, donated 27 meals.

Karen Brink, the office manager at the Florida Cancer Institute, works with nurses to make sure those meals find good homes.

"Everyone that's participated has raved about quality of the food," she said. "They're just excited that, 'Oh, tonight I don't have to go home and cook dinner.'"

The nurses keep a freezer in the office stocked with the prepared food in aluminum trays. All patients have to do is take the trays home and pop them in the oven.

Clendening came up with the idea after she finished chemotherapy in June.

A good friend and cancer survivor, Judy Strazzi, would sit with her during the treatments, which were five hours long. When Strazzi's husband, Joe, came to pick them up, he'd have bread, salad and a tray of lasagna, eggplant parmigiana or braciole for Clendening to take home to her husband.

It was a lifesaver, she said.

Preparing food was something she could do to help other cancer patients, she figured.

"I followed Joe's lead," she said.

Because of health regulations, the Florida Cancer Institute cannot accept food cooked in a nonprofessional kitchen. So, three months ago, she walked into Trinity Main Dish and asked the owners if they could help. They signed up right away.

The next cooking party is at 6 p.m. Thursday at Trinity Main Dish, 7813 Mitchell Blvd. in the Trinity Commons Plaza.

To cook four dishes that make four to eight meals each, the cost is $90. All ingredients and kitchen tools are provided. Participants can choose how many meals they want to donate.

Participants must sign up ahead of time to ensure enough ingredients are on hand. For information, call the Main Dish at (727) 375-2333, or visit www.trinity maindish.com.

TO HELP

Call Trinity Main Dish at (727) 375-2333, or visit www.trinitymaindish.com to register for Thursday's cooking party. Participants pay $90 to cook four entrees. The Main Dish provides soft drinks and appetizers.

If you can't make it to Thursday's party but want to donate an entree to the Florida Cancer Institute, call the Main Dish to arrange for a separate cooking date.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT