How a grassroots food pantry is helping cancer patients get through treatment   

The marathon nobody trains for
Cancer treatment is often described as a marathon. But unlike a runner who can carb-load and prepare, cancer patients are running that race while their bodies work against them. Chemotherapy and radiation can alter taste, trigger nausea, disrupt digestion and devastate appetite — making it genuinely difficult to stay nourished. And research backs up what oncology nurses have long known: patients who maintain good nutrition are more likely to complete their treatment.

For Priscilla Lynn, director of oncology and infusion services at Providence St. Joseph Hospital, that fact is the foundation of everything. “It takes stamina and strength to get through treatment,” she says.

Treating the whole patient
The food pantry didn’t emerge in isolation. It grew out of a broader whole-person cancer care initiative led by Ellen Mahoney, M.D. — a philosophy rooted in the belief that truly caring for cancer patients means looking beyond the disease itself. What does a patient need emotionally? Physically? What everyday barriers might stand between them and completing their treatment? By asking those questions, the team identified nutrition as one of the most immediate and solvable challenges their patients faced — and got to work.

A pantry born from purpose
In 2025, that work took shape as a patient food pantry. The idea was sparked by a thriving food pantry at Providence’s Round Barn Oncology Center in Santa Rosa. St. Joseph’s team took that inspiration and made it their own — tailoring it to fit their patients, their community and the relationships they had already built here. Staff donated a refrigerator and shelving. Dr. Mahoney contributed financially. Space was carved out near the treatment area. And a dedicated shopper team was born: staff members on shift who will go out and buy specific items a patient needs, same day.

Small budget, big impact
The pantry runs on roughly $500 to $600 a month — a remarkably modest sum for what it delivers. Stocked with shelf-stable staples and paired with recipes developed by the team’s oncology certified dietitian, every dollar is stretched as far as it can go. Word has spread slowly but surely — and in a sign of the pantry’s impact, former patients have started asking how they can give back. “We’ve had patients who’ve completed treatment reach out and ask how they can support the pantry,” Priscilla says. “Seeing that desire to give back is incredibly meaningful.” At St. Joseph’s, whole-person care has a way of coming full circle.

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