A group of friends who lost a woman they loved to ovarian cancer nine years ago has fed thousands of Northern Kentucky families facing cancer.
Teal We Find a Cure, an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) based in the Florence area, donated $40,000 to the NOURISH Food Pantry at St. Elizabeth Healthcare's Yung Family Cancer Center, the NKyTribune reported July 26. The gift is the organization's latest investment in a pantry it has supported since the facility opened in June 2023.
The nonprofit was founded by family and friends of Dr. Tracy Madrick Keith, a nutrition and physiology researcher who earned her PhD from the University of Cincinnati. Keith was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer after feeling a small pain in her abdomen during a workout. She died July 25, 2017, at age 52, after a three-year fight with the disease. She left behind her husband, Tony Keith, and three children.
The timing of the donation carries weight. Keith died nine years to the day before the gift was announced.
What NOURISH does
The pantry, run in partnership with the Freestore Foodbank, lets cancer patients and their families walk in and choose produce, proteins, and other staples. No referral is needed. No questions are asked.
About 40% of St. Elizabeth cancer patients identify as food insecure at some point during treatment, according to the hospital's Center for Integrative Oncology. The American Cancer Society has found that half of all cancer patients face financial distress that forces choices between food and medical care.
By October 2025, Dr. Douglas Flora, executive medical director of oncology services at the Yung Family Cancer Center, reported on LinkedIn that the pantry had delivered 105,000 pounds of food and served 15,000 people since its June 2023 opening. The NKyTribune's July 26 article cited earlier benchmarks of 77,000 pounds and 11,000 people served.
"Their generosity will help ensure that no patient has to choose between receiving treatment and putting nutritious food on the table," Flora said of the latest donation.
A sustained commitment
The $40,000 gift is part of a longer track record. In March 2025, Teal We Find a Cure and a partner organization, Give Where You Live, combined to donate nearly $50,000 to NOURISH at a special event at the pantry on March 12. As of October 2025, Flora said the group's cumulative giving to NOURISH had reached $250,000.
Jennifer Oney-Hill, a representative of the group, said supporters made the gift possible.
The organization also dedicated the Gynecologic Oncology space on the first level of the Yung Family Cancer Center in Keith's honor.
Donations can be made at tealwefindacure.donordrive.com. More information about the NOURISH Food Pantry: stelizabeth.com/cancer.
