After graduating college in 2011, Courtney moved back to Chicago. She started looking for ways to give back, but nothing was resonating. She began reflecting on her own experience and thought of how the meals delivered by family and friends brought so much joy during a really difficult time. So, she looked for ways she could bring meals to other families navigating a cancer diagnosis and was shocked to find none. This void is what inspired Culinary Care. Courtney took her business plan to a team of lawyers — Culinary Care would partner with local restaurants and bring free meals to families fighting cancer. We received our official 501(c)(3) status this year!

This is when our story begins. During our founder, Courtney Johnson’s, junior year of high school her father was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. After seven months in and out of the hospital, her father passed away. It was an incredibly stressful time, but friends and family made it better through the meals they dropped off every day. It gave Courtney’s family one less thing to worry about, something to look forward to every day, and a chance to savor every last minute with their dad.

We dropped off flyers for Culinary Care at Gilda’s Club and cancer centers across Chicago. The flyer simply said “take the time to nourish & heal. Let us deliver you a free meal!” A couple of weeks later we were delivering our first meal. Courtney was working full-time and used her lunch break to make the delivery. The next day, we received a four-page letter from Leigh. She had just moved to Chicago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had no friends and no family to help her through this time and the idea of cooking a meal for just one person was too upsetting. This is what she had to say about receiving just one meal from Culinary Care “you have not only strengthened me physically through nourishment but your goodness, grace, and tenderness have restored my faith in human kindness.”

We were a completely volunteer-based organization. Courtney and her colleagues would deliver meals during their lunch break and her family would help deliver meals while she was at work. All of our meals were delivered to homes but, after a six-hour round trip drive, we knew something needed to change if we were going to grow. The family we made this trip for had a son who had been diagnosed with cancer. The mom was working nights so that she could be with her son during his treatment, but that meant she was no longer able to make dinner. When we called to let her know we wouldn’t be able to get to her home, she asked if we could deliver the meals to the hospital. We loved this idea because it also meant we could drop off to multiple families at once.

We started delivering our meals to the hospital and many families were requesting lunch. We learned that when you’re receiving outpatient treatment, like chemotherapy, you don’t receive any food from the hospital. WE THOUGHT THIS WAS SO CRAZY! People were spending 4 - 12 hours at the hospital without any food. So, we made this an official program that we now call our Treatment Day Meal program. Courtney joined Culinary Care as our first full-time employee. While she coordinated patient schedules and delivered meals, she was also inviting the community to support our work as a sponsor of The Corporate Cook-Off fundraiser. 20 corporations joined us that first year and we delivered 153% more meals!

With a community behind us, we were able to hire someone to help deliver meals. We also knew there was a lot more work to be done. Tyson Foods could see what we were trying to do and, in 2016, Courtney received the Meals That Matter Hero Award. It came with a $60,000 donation so that we could hire our second full-time employee, someone who could help us grow.

With our gift from Tyson, we were able to hire our second full-time employee, Caitlin. We may have been small, but we delivered 1,000 more meals, raised the funds we needed to continue to grow, and proved that with the right people on our side anything was possible!

By 2018, we were able to expand our programming so that we could deliver meals during every treatment. For some families that meant 10 deliveries for others it meant 50+. We hosted our first Gourmand Gala and got to celebrate with our impact with 300 supporters!

With six years behind us, we began thinking about the long-term investments we needed to make in order to reach more families and truly deliver on our promise of making mealtime one less worry. We got invited to be part of a UX program and began designing our own digital platform. We hosted our 2nd Annual Gourmand Gala, which had now grown to a community of 400!

2020 presented a lot of challenges — the hospitals where we delivered meals were restricting visitors, the restaurants we relied on for donations were struggling to stay open, and the families we served needed us more than ever. We raised funds to pay for meals, we worked with our hospital partners to make sure meals could still get to patients, and we are proud to say we didn’t skip a single a delivery day. We launched our digital portal and too every challenge as an opportunity to strengthen our program!

In some ways, 2021 was more challenging than 2020. As the world began to open up again, people were tired of virtual events, there was empathy fatigue, and restaurants were struggling to keep up with staffing needs for the return to in-person dining. Meanwhile, cancer patients weren’t allowed to have any caregivers with them during treatment and needed our help more than ever. Despite the challenges, we were able to hire two new programs team members and double the number of meals delivered (compared to 2019).

A lot of people told us we wouldn’t make it past three years, but here we are at NINE! We are so proud of all that we’ve accomplished, but we know there’s a lot more work to do. We feel like we’re truly just getting started and can’t wait to see what the journey holds. This year, Culinary Care is on pace to deliver 5,500 meals. We’re welcoming two additional team members and preparing to expand to a new state!

Our Story

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