Ceres Food Project Benefits Cancer Patients

Food & Wine Event to Benefit Local Cancer Support Organization

Lynmar Winery’s beautiful gardens will be the site of a unique community celebration and fund-raiser on Saturday, September 19th. Benefiting The Ceres Community Project, the event features local farms, food purveyors and wineries who have rallied around the non-profit’s unique mix of providing meals, teaching young people to cook, and promoting the importance of a healthy diet.

Along with Lynmar Winery, the event will feature wines from Iron Horse Vineyards, Skip Stone Ranch and Outpost Winery. Redwood Hill Farm & Dairy and Gourmet Mushrooms, both ongoing supporters of The Ceres Community Project, will create pairings with two of the wines. The other pairings will be created by Ceres’ volunteer teen and adult chefs, who each week prepare about 500 meals for local families dealing with life-threatening illness, primarily cancer. Each pairing will include food grown by Ceres’ many farm partners including First Light Farm, Laguna Farm, Meadow Song Farm, Lynmar Winery and Skipstone Ranch. Whole Foods Market Sebastopol, a major food donor to the organization, will be offering a selection of desserts.

The event celebrates the broad spectrum of community support that has enabled The Ceres Community Project to support hundreds of local families during the past two years. Founded in March 2007, Ceres has provided nearly 35,000 delicious, nourishing and free meals to local families touched by cancer and other illnesses. More than 200 teens have spent time in their kitchens, learning about cooking and eating healthy foods and discovering the joy of contributing to others.

Nearly 11 million Americans are now living with cancer and another 1.5 million will be diagnosed with the disease in 2008 according to the American Cancer Society’s recent report, Cancer Statistics 2008. The report also affirms the growing connection being made between what we eat and the state of our health. JoEllen DeNicola, Ceres’ Nutrition Director, comments “The literature from the American Cancer Society and the American Institute of Cancer Research agree that about 1/3 of all cancer deaths are directly related to poor diet, overweight and/or lack of physical activity – things that are in our control. At The Ceres Community Project we are committed to educating our clients, teen chefs and the larger community about this link and about what we can do to improve our chances of living a healthier life.”

As one of the organization’s clients explains, the weekly delivery of free meals can literally mean the difference between eating and not eating. “I think . . . I really should eat something and go to the refrigerator and see a container. I taste it and think WOW, this is really good. And then I have seconds. I have kept my weight on and just can’t thank you enough.”

Tickets for the Food & Wine Evening are $50 to $100 each sliding scale, and the event is limited to 150.

To order tickets, mail a check to Ceres Project, PO Box 1562, Sebastopol, CA 95473 or email LynmarEvent@ceresproject.org.

www.ceresproject.org to earn more about The Ceres Community Project