It was 12:15 p.m. The Tuesday morning t’ai chi class had just let out, and a dozen or so adult students flowed into the community room, where natural sunlight flooded through floor-to-ceiling windows. The students lined up at the massive island in the adjoining open kitchen to fill their plates with a lunch catered by MetroFresh. They sat in groups of twos, threes and fours, chatting between bites of baked herb chicken and a salad chock-full of vegetables, sporting every color of the rainbow.
You’d never guess that all of them were on a journey with cancer.
Cancer. It’s a frightening word. It’s a devastating word for those diagnosed with the disease. And, for their loved ones, too. It can mean treatment that includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. As if such side effects as fatigue, nausea and appetite loss are not enough, it can bring on anxiety, depression and mood swings. There’s a reason why words like “battle” and “fight” are part of the cancer lexicon.
But, while cancer does bring on tears, and does sometimes result in death, there are places in Georgia free of sterile latex gloves and white lab coats, where cancer patients go to celebrate life.
Thomas F. Chapman Family Cancer Wellness Centers provide comprehensive cancer services and programs to those affected by cancer at any phase in their journey. Cancer treatment involves more than medical care, and the four Chapman centers across the Piedmont health care system — in Atlanta, Fayette County, Newnan and Henry County — offer integrative services from licensed, certified professionals that address nutrition, peace of mind, creativity, physical movement and other health and wellness issues.
Thanks to philanthropic funds — including more than $2 million in the past six years from Karen and Tom Chapman — the nonprofit centers provide these services free of charge to anyone in the community affected by cancer, even individuals who are not Piedmont patients. Last year, attendance at Cancer Wellness programs exceeded 25,000 visits.
“We integrate the medical with the mind-body piece,” explained Carolyn Helmer, manager of the Chapman Cancer Wellness center at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, who has worked at the center since it opened 12 years ago and remains its only full-time staff member.
When the center moved in 2009 from the hospital on Peachtree Road to a bigger space in its current location at 1800 Howell Mill Road, Helmer queried participants about what they wanted from the center. “The number one thing for people was nutrition,” she said.
Indeed, food is a cornerstone of the center. Step off the elevator on the seventh floor, walk past the double glass doors, and you’ll find a community space with a massive kitchen. It’s a space for cooking demos, and for dishing up lunch and dinner to participants after classes. It’s also a place where community is built.
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When the center’s dietitian, Shayna Komar, isn’t providing individual nutrition counseling, she stands in that kitchen, facilitating cooking classes to teach cancer patients and their caregivers how to prepare health-minded meals.
To teach alongside Komar, the center relies on a roster of a dozen or so chefs, including names like Steven Satterfield of Miller Union and Jennifer Levison of Souper Jenny. There's also Nancy Waldeck, who has been cooking at the center for the past 10 years, ever since she first was diagnosed with cancer and availed herself of the center's services.
“I literally cooked my way through chemo, surgery and radiation,” Waldeck said.
While Satterfield and Waldeck are both cancer survivors, the center’s chef instructors are not solely people who have been diagnosed with cancer. All, however, are culinarians with a passion for healthy eating and supporting a local food system.
<<Chef Kevin Gillespie talks about his battle with cancer
For Komar, the most rewarding part of her job is when participants experience the “aha moment” that they can make positive changes to their health through nutrition. “You are using food as a part of your treatment,” she said.
For Waldeck, who has firsthand experience in using food as medicine as she faced cancer, food is one aspect where cancer patients can feel like they are still in charge of something. “You can’t control cancer, but food is one thing you can control,” she said. In her cooking classes, she tries to offer healthy recipes that feature familiar whole foods, but prepared with a bit of a twist, like a kale Caesar salad with sweet potato croutons, or a whole grain salad with avocado dressing, or potato and poblano tacos.
As the t’ai chi students cleaned their plates, they touted Waldeck’s cooking classes. Like her, many of them are fixtures at the center, even though it’s been years since they were diagnosed with cancer.
“After you get through with treatment, it’s important not to go back to old habits,” Ines Hoster said. She has been visiting the center since 2011, coming twice weekly for classes in t’ai chi, mindfulness and writing for recovery. “Participating in their various programs helps me to stay on top of it.”
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“The food is just phenomenal,” said Angela Hunte, seated at a table with Hoster, and a regular there since 2016. At least once a week, she drives to the center from her home in Forsyth County. “I’ve learned so much about caring for myself.”
“It’s all about integrative medicine,” added Jeff Stevenson, a resident of Midtown who also has been visiting the center for the past two years. “This is the most complete center in the metro area. Nutrition, physical movement — all the things that help you be as fit as you can be. The things they do for people are amazing.”
But, there’s also the benefit of what they do for one another.
Finding camaraderie through the center, said Jean Delano of Buckhead, was a powerful plus. “We prop each other up,” she said.
“We are family,” Stevenson echoed.
The room began to empty, as plastic plates were tossed into the trash and water bottles thrown into the recycling bin. It was nearly 1 p.m. Yoga class was about to start.
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