Breast Cancer Program Update

Our ties to the breast cancer community are long and deep. In fact, our expansion to serve other illnesses beyond HIV/AIDS began with a pilot to serve people with breast cancer in 2001. Since then, the program has provided over 1.5 million nutritious meals to clients and their families affected by breast cancer. Today, our clients with breast cancer receive between 10-21 meals per week, depending on their situation and needs, and medical nutrition therapy from our team of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN).

In addition to their work with individuals and families, our RDNs promote community nutritional health via written educational materials, workshops, teleconferences and webinars. The team has written two nutrition publications in English and Spanish for breast cancer patients and survivors. Last year we distributed over 2,000 of these popular resources to individuals and agencies throughout the U.S. and they are also available to download on our website at glwd.org/nutrition/publications.

Our community cooking demos, workshops, webinars and teleconferences are given in English, Spanish and Chinese, and are often collaborations with other organizations in order to increase our reach into the breast cancer community. For several years, we have worked with SHARE Cancer Support, an organization that provides support to women facing breast and ovarian cancers, to provide nutrition education classes for their support groups throughout NYC. This past fall, we expanded our partnership with SHARE Cancer Support to create a series of videos and a webinar for people affected by breast cancer. Three videos, “Bone Health,” “Healthy Fats” and “Superfoods,” based upon our publication Every Bite Counts! Nutrition Tips for Breast Cancer Survivors, were produced and can be viewed on our YouTube page. Our webinar, Nutrition Tips for Breast and Ovarian Cancer, was presented in October during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The well-received webinar was attended by clients from both our organizations and was also open to the public. Our bilingual RDNs will be presenting the webinar in Spanish, ¡Cada Bocado Cuenta! Consejos Nutricionales Para Cancer de Seno y Ovario, in March 2018. If you would like more information, or to attend our programs, please contact the Nutrition Services Department at nutrition@glwd.org.