Use Your Kitchen Skills To Feed Cancer Patients In Hancock County

Do you love to cook?

I spent many years cooking for money. To the point, for a long time, I never wanted to pick up a spatula again. But, as my kitchen years have grown farther behind, I've enjoyed it quite a bit more. It can be quite satisfying preparing a meal from scratch and feeding other people good food. And that's just what's going on in Ellsworth.

You gotta love to cook because love will be the main ingredient.

The Beth. C Wright Cancer Resource Center in Ellsworth is looking for volunteers who want to do a little more with their kitchen skills than just feed their families. Their ''Home-Cooked Healing Meals Program" is set up to help feed cancer patients around Hancock County. And the best part is, you can do it from your own kitchen at home.

Sometimes, the easiest place for someone to cook is right in their own kitchen. You know where everything is, you know how temperamental your own stove can be, so why put someone in an uncomfortable spot, when the ultimate goal is to make someone else more comfortable.

So how does it work?

Basically, you'll be cooking meals, in your own style, that will fit the dietary needs of folks who've been set up to receive them. You'll just need to be able to cook around their needs, whatever those may be, according to News Center Maine.

And naturally, safety is the #1 issue at hand, because most cancer patients have highly compromised immune systems. So one of the requirements is that you'll need to obtain ServSafe food safety certification before you can begin volunteering. I've taken the training myself several times, and it's not at all intimidating.

"I'd love to volunteer, but I don't have a lot of money..."

Well, you're in luck. If you can't afford the safety training, no problem. That'll be covered. The ingredients you need to prepare the food will also be covered. So basically, at the end of the day, all it needs to cost you is your time. That's it.

Additionally, this whole process is anonymous. You'll never know who your meals go to, and the patients will never know where the meals came from. Maybe some folks would rather know each other, but that doesn't seem to be how this works. So if that's a deal-breaker for you, know that going into the process.

No matter how you look at it, this could be a great way to give back to the community. Maybe you've had cancer, or know someone that has, and would simply like to help. We all gotta eat. So if you have the time to help someone else eat, you just might be a hero while you do it.