WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

Food Guidelines for the Craig/Vodosek Family

For the wonderful people who are giving us meals (or inviting us to your home for a meal), here are a few guidelines that we'd appreciate you following.

The Basics
We are a family of four. Recently, we've had a few extra mouths to feed with company in town. Our care coordinator, Lee, is generally aware of how many people are here, and she can advise you if we'll need extra portions.

We eat omnivorously, but carefully, with an eye on nutrition and food purity. We are avoiding food colorings and dyes, preservatives, and other artificial ingredients. We are purchasing organic foods where available and reasonable, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. We favor whole grains over more processed foods and try to keep our sugar intake at a minimum.

Always wash your hands as often as possible when coming into contact with us or foods for us, since we're trying to keep Simon as healthy as possible, despite periods of low immunity. Please wash all vegetables and fruits with a food soap or dishwashing liquid before cutting, especially if they will be served raw. Simon's eating is pretty unreliable these days, and we are taking care of his specific requests. So, you are probably cooking for the other members of the family, with the outside chance that Simon's appetite and fatigue level will allow him to be interested in dinner.

Food Preferences
Mild, non-spicy foods for the kids. Mary and Markus like medium-spicy foods, too.

Soups (homemade and hearty are the best) and hearty bread (La Brea, Vosen's, for example) or homemade wholegrain bread are a flexible and welcome staple. Simon's favorite (although not generally whole grain) is a good, intense sourdough.

Noodle and rice-based dishes that can be reheated work well, too. The children like lasagna but sometimes balk when foods are too "mixed together".

We love learning about international cooking styles and welcome anything that you think is yummy!

Where to bring the food
To our house at 1463 E. Roosevelt Avenue (1455 South). Please call ahead to be sure someone can accept a delivery (583-3420) or plan to leave it on our back porch. If we know a meal is coming when we plan to be out of the house, we will try to remember to leave a cooler with ice packs in it on the back porch.

Perhaps you're wondering how much it means to us to get a lovingly prepared (or purchased) meal from friends and even people we've never met before. See the May 6, 2002 entry on the SIMON SAYS archive page for Simon's appreciative description of how great it is to have meals provided to us.