People often ask me where the idea for Plates With Purpose came from. The truth is, it feels like I’ve been building toward it my entire life. 

Long before I worked in nonprofit development, I spent my career in restaurants. I started as a line cook, where I quickly learned that a kitchen is the ultimate team sport. Every service required trust, communication, creativity, and showing up for one another. I loved that camaraderie. 

As my career evolved into front-of-house leadership and restaurant ownership, what fueled me most wasn’t the food, it was the people. 

I loved learning guests’ stories, celebrating life’s milestones, and creating spaces where everyone felt welcome. I trained my teams to believe that hospitality wasn’t just about taking an order or delivering a plate. It was about making people feel seen. It was about making sure everyone had a seat at the table. 

Food has always been my love language. 

It’s how my husband, Jim, and I met – working side by side in professional kitchens. Together we cooked in Italy, worked in New York, opened and operated a restaurant in Philadelphia, and built a life centered around gathering people around a table. 

Then cancer changed everything. 

Within a year of one another, we were both diagnosed with cancer. After my treatment, I became Jim’s caregiver as he navigated his own diagnosis. Following his death, I needed work that felt purposeful. I needed to help people who, like us, wanted to be seen, heard, understood, and reminded they weren’t alone. 

That’s what led me to Twist Out Cancer. 

Although my job changed, I realized something surprising: I was still practicing hospitality. Instead of welcoming guests into a restaurant, I was welcoming people into a community. 

Instead of creating memorable meals, I was helping create meaningful moments of healing through art, storytelling, and human connection. 

Everyone still deserved a seat at the table, this table just looks a little different. Plates With Purpose was born from that realization.

Having owned a restaurant myself, I know firsthand what it’s like to receive constant requests for gift cards and donations. Those requests often felt one-sided. I never wanted our restaurant partners to feel that way. 

That’s why Plates With Purpose is built differently. 

Our goal isn’t simply to ask restaurants to give. 

It’s to create partnerships that give something back. 

Whether it’s filling seats on a Tuesday night, introducing new guests to a neighborhood favorite, hosting a collaborative dinner, highlighting a chef’s story, or bringing people together around a shared table, we want our partners to benefit alongside Twist Out Cancer. 

Because when restaurants thrive, communities thrive. 

And when people gather around food, something extraordinary happens. Stories are shared. 

Friendships begin. 

Hope grows. 

Healing also happens outside of hospital rooms. Sometimes it happens over a beautifully prepared meal, across a candlelit table, sharing the perfect bite or clinking a glass to celebrate the small wins and major milestones. Healing happens during a conversation with someone who simply understands. 

Every Plates With Purpose event honors that belief. 

It also honors Jim. 

Jim believed food was one of the purest ways to care for another person. Every dinner, every partnership, every chef who says “yes”, reminds me of the life we built together and the legacy of generosity, creativity, and hospitality he left behind. 

At Twist Out Cancer, we often say that no one should face cancer alone. Sometimes that starts with art. 

Sometimes it starts with a conversation. 

And sometimes…it starts by pulling up a chair and sharing a meal.