Feed the community,feed the soul

When my friend Toni Gregory-Palenzuela sent me a message on July 1 to attend the opening of The Ruth Foundation’s Compassionate Community Kitchen on July 14, I did not think twice and immediately said yes. Toni found this curious and asked me why during the event.

I first met Dr. Rumelie (Mae) Corvera, founder of The Ruth Foundation, in early 2013 through my dear friend Angie Laborte. My beloved husband Mike was then battling stage four cancer, and it seemed like we were losing the battle. I had promised Mike that I would not let him die in the hospital, and that he would spend his last days at home with me. Dr. Mae’s offer of palliative care was heaven-sent. She helped me fulfill my promise to Mike, as he passed on at home and in my arms. I can still remember when she advised me gently to call my children home for the inevitable. And this is why I could not miss the invitation from The Ruth Foundation to attend the launch of the Compassionate Community Kitchen (CCK).

Situated on the second floor of the Don Gesu Building at 116 Don Jesus Boulevard in Cupang, Muntinlupa, CCK serves delicious Southeast Asian cuisine, from sandwiches and noodles to rice meals and pastries. They are open from Wednesday to Saturday, from 9am to 5pm only.

Arriving at CCK, I was directed to Table 2, where I was happy to see Angie Laborte. Our friendship goes way back to when Angie and my late husband Mike were together on the Socials and Dining Committee of Palms Country Club. In 2009, the four of us (Mongsie Wulff, Miriam Medalla, Angie, and I) participated in a Black Box Cooking Competition at Palms Country Club. We did not win the competition, but we cemented our beautiful friendship which has carried us through many of life’s trials. 

We were soon joined at our table by friends Melissa Joseph and Christine Jacob, who was hosting the media event. Angie and Melissa are both cancer conquerors and the prime movers of Project Pink Support Group. It was Angie that got me to attend bible studies to deepen my faith.

While waiting for the event to begin, we were served CCK’s signature sandwiches on freshly baked bread: Kaya sandwich, which is actually coconut egg jam with soft-boiled egg and soy sauce; CCK’s sandwich trio of shrimp, chicken and beef topped with pickled veggies and a special sauce; and Roti John beef curry. To whet our thirst, we were offered Tamarind Tanglad Juice (you must try this wonderful concoction!) and Lemon Cucumber Juice.

We sampled the different dishes of CCK, which were all delicious. There was Mee Goreng, stir-fried noodles on sweet and savory sauce mixed with chicken, vegetables, and scrambled eggs; and my favorite Seafood Laksa (in photo), thick rice noodles with a savory and spicy coconut broth topped with fresh seafood. The rice meals were just as delicious and filling. They had charcoal grilled Nasi Lemak Chicken; grilled Beef Satay marinated in coconut milk, lemongrass, and spices with a peanut sauce on the side; crispy deep fried Salted Egg Pork Chops with sambal sauce, and the juiciest Singapore Chicken Rice. For dessert, CCK had pandan chiffon cupcakes and kaya muffins. 

Soon, the program started, with the introduction of Dr. Mae Corvera (in photo), a family medicine and palliative medicine specialist who heads the Department of Occupational and Family Medicine at the Asian Hospital and Medical Center. Dr. Mae introduced the concept of palliative care and the initiatives being done by The Ruth Foundation (TRF) for Palliative Care, which she founded in 2012 and named after her mother-in-law. 

Dr. Mae has been at the forefront of pushing palliative care. She believes that people are more than just physical bodies, and that the problems facing sick persons beset by chronic, progressive, life-limiting, or life-threatening conditions like cancer, organ failure, dementia, and the like, need to be addressed from a whole person perspective including minds, spirits, emotions. She emphasized that it is not just the patients that need support, but also the family members who care for them.

TRF provides free psycho-social services and better palliative care (better known as quality-of-life care) hospice to those with life-limiting illness as well as the homebound elderly. TRF helps not just the patients but their families as well, at a time when they need support the most. Along with control of pain and other distress-full physical symptoms, psycho-social care is a key element of palliative care. TRF’s newest project does that by supplementing the nutritional care of elderly and chronically ill patients. It also boosts their spirits, reminding them of the need to care for their whole person, beyond medical needs.

The Compassionate Community Kitchen (CCK) is a sustainable initiative that aims to improve the quality of life of the underprivileged who are facing a life-limiting illness and restore the dignity of family members by providing psych-social care services and specialty and nutritious food. It is run by a group of people with the heart to serve the underprivileged and bring hope to the sick through well-prepared and nutritious food.

I was not surprised to learn that this group was led by Dr. Mae, Angie Laborte, and Melissa Joseph, who were inspired by the Singapore-based Dignity Kitchen. They have a team of professional chefs and cooks Carlo, Randy, John and Prince (in photo above) who trained with consultants from Singapore to prepare Southeast Asian cuisine, and who are all just as passionate in serving people with hope and compassion. They are also blessed to have as investor CloverSense Technology, Inc, represented by Adrian Lee (in photo with author).

Each week, CCK delivers free meals to their palliative care patients. These include the patients of The Ruth Foundation Palliative & Hospice Care; elderly residents of Brgy Munting Ilog; cancer-afflicted children from faraway provinces who stay temporarily at the Silungan ng Pag-asa or Shelter of Hope while they undergo treatment; cancer-stricken indigent children at the Center for Health Improvement and Life Development (CHILD) Haus; and abandoned and homeless elderly at the House of Somang. Since they started, CCK has already served more than a thousand free meals to their partner communities. And mind you, they serve their beneficiaries the exact same meal that we enjoyed during lunch. 

To sustain the weekly distribution of free meals, CCK is now accepting orders for the delicious meals it prepares, with 100% of the proceeds going back to fund the free meals it gives to their beneficiaries as well as to help fund purchase of much-needed medicine, medical suppliers and other supportive care needs. 

To order from CCK, viber or call +63 945 594 9465. Meals are available in solo packs, family size for 4 to 6 persons and party size for 8 to 10 persons. You can also order their pastries, beverages and sauces and spreads like sambal paste, curry paste, namnam sauce and kaya spread. Orders require one day lead time, and you take care of pick-ups or deliveries, but I assure you that it is well worth it. And if you want to go the extra mile to give back, you can always sponsor food packages for their beneficiaries. A gift of P5000 can subsidize 30 patient meals, while P1,500 can fund 12 patient meals. To sponsor, reach out to TRF’s General Manager Babes Ayon at +63 906 314 1421 or +632 8808 6079, For more information, you can visit www.facebook.com/cocokitchen.ph or www.ruth.ph.

For their next phase, CCK intends to open a food stall/cart management course. This will be open to patients who are still able to learn and start their own home-based food business as a form of livelihood, or to their family members who commit to use the skills they learn to support the needs of their patient, either through potential employment or livelihood.

Ending her talk, Dr. Mae quoted American Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist, civil rights activist, hospice caregiver, and the author of several books on Buddhism and spirituality

Joan Halifax in saying there are three key elements to prime, optimize, and sustain true compassion in our work. First is the capacity to see clearly into the nature of suffering and to stand strong while recognizing we are not separate from it. Second is the will to actually aspire to transform the perceived suffering and engage in tasks to do so. Last is the ability to enact compassion regardless of the outcome–not expecting reward or recognition, or even success in your efforts, and not being attached to the outcome. 

In short, compassion means to suffer together. And to want to relieve suffering when confronted with another persons’ suffering. And that is exactly what The Ruth Foundation and the Compassionate Community Kitchen are all about. You get this feeling that you’re just a little bit closer to heaven through them. 

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