cookforyourlife.org

When was the last time you took time to cook a meal from scratch? Most of us don't think we have time, and head for the prepared foods counter or the supermarket freezer case to grab dinner. Many of the foods there feature the word 'healthy' but are they? For people with cancer, this question becomes more nagging. What am I really eating? The answer is that we can only control what we put into our bodies by preparing it ourselves. This is where CookForYourLife! comes in.

Two time cancer survivor Ann Ogden Gaffney founded not-for-profit CookForYourLife! with business partner Bruce Crouch in 2006. Although Ann loves to cook, when she was going through treatment, she couldn't always face it, so she had to teach her husband, whose kitchen skills ran to ordering in pizza, how to cook a couple of simple nutritious dishes that he could make for the family with the minimum of effort. This gave her the idea for CookForYourLife!

CookForYourLife! cooking classes are hands-on affairs. With the help of a top professional chef, everyone gets cooking! People really have fun - they see that cooking doesn't have to be a chore. All our menus are simple and quick to make and use the freshest and healthiest ingredients possible. Ann uses her experience of how chemo and radiation feels to work with our chefs to make sure that all the dishes are user friendly.

CookForYourLife! provides 101 nutrition classes as a complement to the cooking. Working with our partners, we organize field trips to local supermarkets and farmer's markets, and guide people towards the right choices from the enormous selection of produce and merchandise available. After all, shopping for food is a big part of cooking well!

CookForYourLife! is about food for the body and the soul!
Last but not least, perhaps the most important aspect of all our classes is the support they offer. Our goal is for all our classes provide a break from the routine of treatment and the difficulties of just getting through life each day.
This is a warm relaxed environment. While they cook, the participants chat about the food and their lives, and share their experience of their illnesses. By the time the class sits down together for dinner afterwards, the atmosphere is fun and social. They are enjoying eating the food they have made, and each others' company. CookForYourLife! is not just about learning to cook and healthy eating, it is about being alive and loving it!

About Ann:

I come from an Anglo-Italian family of eaters. My Mom’s father and uncle were Italian chefs, my Dad was an English baker. I never stood a chance really! I have been an avid cook since I was 12 years old.
Through my career in fashion as a designer, I have traveled the world over for my job, trying as many new cuisines as possible along the way! I lived in Paris for 12 years and spent a great deal of time in Italy and Japan. In 1985, I came to live and work in New York City.

In 2001 I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and had my right kidney removed, then in 2005, unusual soreness in my left breast announced an unrelated breast cancer. Having recovered from major surgery and then, less than 4 years later, having to go through more surgery plus chemotherapy and radiation, I have deep personal experience on both a physical and psychological level, of what it means to receive a cancer diagnosis and to have to go through the rigors of treatment.

I have wanted to do something with food for a long time. I am a long time practitioner of Zen Buddhism, and, after working several times as an assistant cook during retreats at Dai Bosatsu monastery in upstate New York, I have come to realize that cooking can be an act of love, and that working for others is a great privilege. After everything I had gone through, it seemed Illogical to go back to designing clothing people didn’t really need, and logical to use my experience of both the disease and my love of cooking to do something positive for others who like me have had to endure the unavoidable suffering and loneliness of cancer.

Perhaps because of my background, for me nothing is a more an expression of living than eating. Like breathing we have to do it to stay alive, but unlike breathing, we actively enjoy it. Through the cooking classes, I believe I have found a simple way to put back some of the warmth and laughter, and restore that joy of simply being alive that is so often lost during treatment. I understand that despite everything, life goes on, so we might as well have fun while we’re about it. Cooking can do that. This is what CookForYourLife! is really about.

Our Partners:
CookforyourLife! partners with CancerCare, Gilda's Club and Continuum Health Partners Cancer Centers. Fairway Markets has pledged to underwrite some of our food costs.
Our clients come from hospitals all over the New York metro area including, NYU, Sloane Kettering, Columbia and many more.We are also proud to announce that starting this Fall we will be working with Women at Risk.

Please check out our Events page for upcoming classes. You can also ask us for class information at: info@cookforyourlife.org
We now have a blog page! Visit it to send us your comments or favorite recipes!