March
2000
Food
Is Healing: The Whole Foods Project Makes a Difference
By Richard Pierce
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I founded the Whole Foods Project (a nonprofit grassroots
organization providing low-cost nutrition services to people with life-challenging
illnesses) in 1990, but my personal journey with food and healing began
over 20 years ago when I had a serious case of hepatitis. It was then
that I learned two important lessons: illness can be a great teacher,
and there is an undeniable connection between lifestyle and health.
I realized for the first time that my actions, not chance, had brought
me close to death. I changed many things in my life immediately, but
it took me a couple of years to experiment with food. I decided to see
if a change in diet would alleviate my severe discomfort from allergies.
Over time, I discovered that I did best on a plant-based diet. I was
living in New Orleans and there was no support for a nutritional approach
to health, so I bought a couple of books, cooked for myself, and, for
the most part, ate alone for a year.
When I moved to New York City in 1984, I lived with a friend who had
breast cancer. She decided to have a mastectomy, but also chose to take
advantage of other healing modalities, including diet and acupuncture.
I cooked for her, which helped me since my diet had slipped and was
not great at that point. I also began seeing an acupuncturist and through
her became involved with the holistic community in the city. I attended
an amazing healing circle for people living with HIV or AIDS and headed
the hospital visiting committee. Because of the terror I felt at the
prospect of having AIDS, I could only see myself in the role of helper,
a role I played exclusively for many years before deciding to be tested
for HIV.
My rationale for not being tested earlier was that I didn’t want
the threat of illness to be my primary motivation for taking care of
myself; my not-so-rational reason was fear. At the beginning of the
AIDS epidemic, ‘HIV positive,’ ‘AIDS’ and ‘death’
were said in one breath. Intellectually, I didn’t buy into that
grim scenario, but on a visceral level I could not come to terms with
it. In looking back at those years, I realize that I was in a state
of "healthy denial." There were no effective treatments at
the time and I was doing everything I could to take care of myself:
eating well, doing bodywork, and trying to find some spiritual underpinning
for my life. I was also learning to trust myself. One morning I woke
knowing that "today is the day I get tested." Before 24 hours
had passed, my 10-year-long suspicion had been confirmed.
By the time I was diagnosed HIV positive, there had been many changes
in my professional life as well. In 1987 a friend encouraged me to apply
for a chef’s position she had seen posted on the board at Angelica’s
Kitchen. I applied for the job and was hired. My experience there forms
the foundation of my work as a chef, food-writer, and teacher and I’m
profoundly grateful for it. I loved the work, but after a few years
I wanted to do something more directly health related. That’s when
I started the Whole Foods Project at the Manhattan Center for Living,
a holistic resource center for people living with a life-challenging
illness.
Over the years, the location and structure of the Project have changed,
but the essence of it has not. For a decade the Whole Foods Project
has been teaching people living with a life-challenging illness about
the health benefits of a plant-based diet. Our message is simple yet
profound—food is healing. Over the years we’ve reached thousands
of people with this message and helped change the lives of many of those
facing daunting health challenges. We’ve done this by serving meals,
disseminating nutrition information, and teaching practical cooking
skills. But perhaps most important, we’ve demonstrated to others
that we care about them and support them in being healthier and happier.
I believe the most fundamental tasks we have as human beings is to recognize
our common humanity and to serve others. Teaching cooking classes, doing
nutrition workshops, presenting monthly cabaret suppers, and publishing
a newsletter are our vehicles for service.
The Whole Foods Project offers specific, relevant, effective programs
that have a real and positive impact on the lives of others. But we
do it with the awareness that we are not operating in a vacuum; we are
part of a much bigger picture.
Our clients are people with HIV, AIDS, cancer, or heart disease. Those
of us living with an illness labeled "terminal" know that
we may not be cured, but this does not mean that we cannot be healed.
Curing is purely physical, whereas healing requires deep emotional and
spiritual changes that make us a different person. Healing involves
many things, and one of them is certainly a health-supportive diet.
The decision to change our diet is an important step on the road to
better health, and it is part of a process that ultimately comes from
within us. For many, the decision to make dietary or other lifestyle
changes is prompted by a compelling personal reason, like the diagnosis
of a serious illness or the loss of someone close to us. At first our
reason for making the change is narrowly focused, then our perspective
may begin to broaden. For me, it took years to understand that the decision
to change my diet had a ripple effect that went far beyond personal
considerations.
When we make the decision to eat a plant-based diet grown by sustainable
agricultural methods, we’re helping to reduce world hunger by using
grain and other resources in an efficient way. We’re having a positive
effect on the environment by, among other things, reducing the number
of toxic chemicals used in farming. And we’re recognizing the dignity
of animals and their right to be treated ethically and compassionately.
And it all starts with the individual decision to change what we eat.
To me, nothing speaks more eloquently or directly to the interconnected
and interdependent nature of our being. Healing starts within us, manifests
in our own lives, and then radiates out to touch the lives of other
human beings, animals, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the
earth we walk upon.
Richard Pierce is a former chef at Angelica Kitchen, founder
and Executive Director of the Whole Foods Project, and a regular contributor
to Vegetarian Times. If you would like more information, and to learn
how to help, contact: Whole Foods Project, 285 5 Ave., Box 433, Brooklyn,
NY 11215; tel: 718-832-6628; e-mail: wfproject@aol.com.
