Staying Above Water

Cooks Create Book To Aid Cancer Patients

Here’s a cause that many can relate to…raising money for people who need immediate financial assistance for expenses they incur while undergoing cancer treatments, including missed work days, transportation to and from the hospital, groceries, child care costs, and all sorts of things not covered by insurance.

Last summer, 21^st Century Cancer Assistance Research and Education (C.A.R.E.), a Fort Myers-based, not-for-profit charitable foundation dedicated to cancer patients, started soliciting recipes from the patients, employees, physicians and board members in an effort to create a cookbook as a fundraising component to its cause. What resulted is “Caring Recipes for the 21^st Century,” a hardbound three-ring binder boasting 386 recipes–everything from appetizers and beverages to entrées, desserts, candy and breads.

To give the project an added zeal, 21^st Century C.A.R.E. also reached out to local civic leaders and businesses as well as to the famous Food Network Television Channel.

This effort resulted in recipes from FOX Channel 4 and WINK Channel 5, but the icing on the cake was obtaining a recipe from a former Food Network chef whose name and recipe remains secret except to those fortunate enough to obtain one of 3,000 available copies of the cook book.

For a $15 donation to 21^st Century C.A.R.E., copies of “Caring Recipes for the 21^st Century” are available through the website www.21stcenturycare.org. All of the funds are used to support the mission of 21^st Century C.A.R.E., an organization that provides immediate financial assistance to cancer patients across the country for incidental expenses like groceries, medical supplies, transportation to and from treatment, and child care. For more information, visit the website at www.21stcenturycare.org or call 239-938-9301.