If you’re a pancreatic cancer patient or caregiver and you’d like to sign up for food assistance, (must live in MA, NH, RI, CT, VT, ME, NY, NJ, or PA) please click here.
Food is foundational; it’s what helps to fuel and heal the human body. Of course, the type of fuel you give yourself impacts your overall health. This is why Project Purple and Nutré Meals have unveiled an amazing new partnership that will help patients receive the right kind of food to help fuel their fight against pancreatic cancer.
“Access to high-quality food is so critical, and when you’re sick, it’s even more critical,” said Dino Verrelli, founder and CEO of Project Purple.
Together, Nutré and Project Purple will supply patients with much-needed nutritious meals through Project Purple’s Patient Financial Aid Program (PFA). Project Purple’s Patient Financial Aid program provides grants to qualified patients to help with medical and everyday living expenses. Since its inception in 2012, the program has paid in excess of $700,000 to help more than 1,000 patients cover medical bills, utilities, and housing expenses.
Today, Project Purple will be buying $100,000 worth of meals for patients, and then Nutré will be matching that investment. Now, patients and their families located in the New England and Tri-State Area will get healthy, nutritious meals delivered to their door thanks to this partnership.
Forming a Connection
Dino Verrelli and Valentino Perrina, CEO of Nutré, connected over one commonality; they wanted to help people.
Founded in 2010, Project Purple provides financial aid and funding for research in an effort to help patients battling pancreatic cancer. Its primary source of funding is through peer-to-peer fundraising by individuals participating in marathons, half marathons, and other physical activities.
Alex Palios, one of Project Purple’s board members, is good friends with Perrina. Together, they discussed connecting Project Purple with Nutré through a charity donut program. The program allowed people to purchase a specialty donut for the charity and then donated a percentage of the profits to that charity. Through this donut connection, the partnership between Nutré and Project Purple expanded.
The Perrina brothers, Valentino, Lucio, and Angelo first created the healthy meal plans to help their father, Lucio Sr., manage his Type 2 Diabetes and brother, Lucio Jr., better manage his weight. Positive results encouraged the brothers to expand their meal plan service. Their goal now is to help people achieve their health goals through nutritious, home-delivered meals.
Through Project Purple’s PFA Program, families have access to 2 or 4-month subscriptions to help alleviate some of the financial, emotional, and physical burdens of cooking. They will be able to place meal orders on Nutré’s website. Families will have access to meals that cover all dietary restrictions including gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, diabetic-friendly, low-sodium, low-carb, low-calorie, and vegetarian meal plans.
Partnership Makes Perfect
Verrelli is excited about this partnership not just because it allows Project Purple’s PFA Program to help more people, but also because these meals won’t just be helping the patient.
“Whenever you’re caring for someone who is ill, you as the caregiver need to be healthy,” said Verrelli. “There is this saying that someone who is chronically ill can’t help someone who is ill. I think what is amazing about the program is that they are supporting people with good nutritious meals. It is critical for the person fighting to have high-quality food, but for the caregivers, if they’re healthy, they can do that much more for the people fighting.”
Perrina believes that not only will this partnership help others, but it could also inspire other charities to connect with meal prep companies to help increase their impact.
“I truly hope that this inspires other people in this space whether it’s the food space or the cancer space to start aligning,” said Perrina. “There is a huge correlation between food, between cancer, between diabetes. There are these movements in the cancer space and the food space, but there’s a block. If we can keep inspiring these synergies, then it can maybe inspire bigger action.”
If you’re a pancreatic cancer patient or caregiver and you’d like to sign up for food assistance, (must live in MA, NH, RI, CT, VT, ME, NY, NJ, or PA) please click here.
For more information about Nutre Meals visit GoNutre.com.
For more information about Project Purple visit www.ProjectPurple.org.
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ABOUT NUTRE
Based in Peabody, Mass., Nutré (NOO-TRAY) is a meal-prep service started in 2017 by the Perrina family, owners of Toscana Ristorante and Tosacana Bar Italiano on Massachusetts’ North Shore. Brothers Lucio, Angelo and Valentino Perrina first created the healthy meal plans to help their father, Lucio Sr., manage his Type 2 Diabetes and Lucio Jr. better manage his weight. Encouraged by their results, the brothers pursued a vision for helping others achieve positive health outcomes through nutritious, home-delivered meals. Nutré has an extensive community giving program that has provided more than 150,000 meals to food-insecure families and First Responders. For more information, visit GoNutre.com.
ABOUT PROJECT PURPLE
Founded in 2010, Project Purple provides financial aid and hope to patients battling pancreatic cancer and funds critical research in the detection and treatment of the disease. Its primary source of funding is through peer-to-peer fundraising by individuals participating in marathons, half marathons and other physical activities. In 2022, more 15,000 individuals helped raise more than $1 million to support Project Purple’s mission of a world without pancreatic cancer. Project Purple has funded nearly $3 million in research and provided more than $650,000 in financial aid to help patients cover medical bills, utilities and housing costs while undergoing treatment. For more information, go to www.ProjectPurple.org.
Media Contact:
Sam DaCosta, sam.dacosta@projectpurple.org, 203-714-6052
