My name is  Jason and I am reaching out to the chef and hospitality community in a plea for help. Over the time Covid had the world in its grips I was battling a few issues.

Covid started with me having extensive back surgery, and I had what I thought was a couple of infected lymphnodes in my neck diagnosed prior to back surgery, and thought it was no big deal. Six weeks after back surgery a biopsy revealed throat cancer, horrible news for a chef and a non-smoker. I was given the option of surgery and radiation or chemotherapy and radiation. I chose surgery and radiation because the combination of chemotherapy and radiation could completely wipe out your palate, not good for a chef. Amidst the throes of a global pandemic something that is is life-changing by by itself into a complete nightmare I found myself in the care of a horrible oncologist that was unveiled this time went on. It was not a time that you could go out shopping and looking for others so I felt I had to stay where I was at to get this cancer taken care of.

At pre-op I tested three times asymptomatic for Covid. After the third I was getting frustrated and went to the doctor who is one of those that think he's God and begrudgingly he made an appointment for me at an infectious disease doctor . After a battery of test it was revealed that I had the antibody, my body was just discharging dead viral cells and presented no immediate threat to anyone more importantly the surgical team. Four days later I was in pre-op and things were tensive between the doctor and I so in an effort to present an olive branch I brought him a bottle of port wine from Australia given he was from New Zealand. I thought I had smoothed everything over but as soon as I was put under anesthesia for no reason given to this day he gave me a covid test and of course it came back positive! Because of that test I found myself locked away in solitude for 14 days in a Covid-ICU after surgery. Mind you I had a tracheotomy so I couldn't speak and the doctor had severed both of my accessory nerves so at first I really could not write ! Imagine going through the worst thing in your life and you have no one by your side for support ! I can't tell you how difficult that was because I couldn't even get out of bed , I could not speak to anyone on the phone, I had no one to come in and talk to me hold my hand tell me things are going to be okay!  Now fighting the physical, emotional, and financial challenges that followed has been tough. All my savings and retirement funds have been drained.

Over the last 25 years, I have dedicated myself to helping others in the community, I spearheaded program in Central Florida to provide meals for those in need on Thanksgiving day. Through Helping From the Heart program, I managed the feeding of over 15,000 meals on Thanksgiving day, every year for 25 years. there are many many other philanthropic events that I contributed my time with to help generate money for people and organizations in need . 

This is an extremely humbling and hard step for me, to have to reach out for assistance, the truth of the matter is, we all need a little help sometimes. If you find it in your heart to help in any way, it would be an absolute blessing. For those who wish to verify the validity of my situation, I have included several news links to attest to my efforts as a chef and my work in the community. Thank you all for your time and any help you can extend is appreciated beyond words. Please feel free to reach out to me if you want to make sure that this is real you can also Google Chef Jason Gronlund see the work I have done philanthropically and for the community and my industry, I sincerely thank everyone!