{"id":29079,"date":"2017-04-01T10:45:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T14:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=29079"},"modified":"2017-04-01T11:05:10","modified_gmt":"2017-04-01T15:05:10","slug":"volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On any given day, walking into Hospice Huntsville feels like you&#8217;re walking into the home of a good friend. It&#8217;s an even sweeter entry when chef Eric Gagnon is in, as the smell of his delicious meals greet you at the door.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 14px;\"><strong><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45658\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>Gagnon started volunteering his time twice a week last November to come in and prepare a home-cooked meal for Hospice Huntsville&#8217;s residents and family members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy oldest son, he&#8217;s six, has non-verbal autism and we use a lot of services in the community like Hands, One Kids Place and Community Living,\u201d said Gagnon. \u201cWhere I work slows down between the end of October and April, so I have the time to give back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even though his work at Port Cunnington Lodge will start picking up again, Gagnon will continue to volunteer one day a week during the summer months.<\/p>\n<p>When researching places to volunteer in Huntsville, Gagnon thought Hospice Huntsville would be a good fit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy nature I&#8217;m actually quite shy and I used to dread even going out in the dining room and meeting people (while working). So this is helping me get out there more and break down some of that shyness,\u201d said Gagnon. \u201cI like coming here. It keeps me from getting rusty and I can try new things. It&#8217;s only four hours a week out of my time. I would encourage other people to come volunteer. The major excuse is that &#8216;I don&#8217;t have time&#8217;. But people do have time if they break it down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gagnon started cooking at a young age. When he was in high school he was debating a career as an electrical engineer or a chef. The indoor comforts of cooking helped Gagnon solidfy his choice. He&#8217;s earned his Red Seal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re happy to have him,\u201d said Melissa Polischuk, fundraising and public relations coordinator with Hospice Huntsville. \u201cIt&#8217;s a wonderful service and adds to the whole ambiance of being at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to sponsor a home-cooked meal for residents and their family members at Hospice Huntsville, visit <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hospicehuntsville.com\/donate-2\/wish-list\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.hospicehuntsville.com\/donate-2\/wish-list\/<\/a><\/span> (wish list item number HS04) or phone 705-789-6878 to see how you can give.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Want more Huntsville community stories? <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/category\/community\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a><\/span>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free, twice-weekly newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/dont-miss-out-on-doppler\/\"><u>here<\/u>.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45657\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On any given day, walking into Hospice Huntsville feels like you&#8217;re walking into the home of a good friend. It&#8217;s an even sweeter entry when chef Eric Gagnon is in, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":29081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-29079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-breaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On any given day, walking into Hospice Huntsville feels like you&#8217;re walking into the home of a good friend. It&#8217;s an even sweeter entry when chef Eric Gagnon is in, [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-01T14:45:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-01T15:05:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"708\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mandi Hargrave\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Hville_Doppler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Hville_Doppler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mandi Hargrave\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mandi Hargrave\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/9411105d64e99263c7bfe9a8eb092ab4\"},\"headline\":\"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-01T14:45:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-01T15:05:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/\"},\"wordCount\":409,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"breaking\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/\",\"name\":\"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home - Huntsville Doppler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-01T14:45:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-01T15:05:10+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg\",\"width\":708,\"height\":336,\"caption\":\"Chef Eric Gagnon (Photo: Melissa Polischuk)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\",\"name\":\"Huntsville Doppler\",\"description\":\"Read Local\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Huntsville Doppler\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg\",\"width\":760,\"height\":212,\"caption\":\"Huntsville Doppler\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Hville_Doppler\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/huntsville_doppler\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/9411105d64e99263c7bfe9a8eb092ab4\",\"name\":\"Mandi Hargrave\",\"description\":\"Mandi was no stranger to Muskoka growing up and as she got older she knew this was the place she wanted to call home. She loves time with her dog, being outside and laughs shared with friends. She loves sitting down to chat and hear a good story, one you\u2019ll hopefully let her share with the Huntsville community.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/author\/mandihargrave\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home - Huntsville Doppler","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home - Huntsville Doppler","og_description":"On any given day, walking into Hospice Huntsville feels like you&#8217;re walking into the home of a good friend. It&#8217;s an even sweeter entry when chef Eric Gagnon is in, [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/","og_site_name":"Huntsville Doppler","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/","article_published_time":"2017-04-01T14:45:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-04-01T15:05:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":708,"height":336,"url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mandi Hargrave","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Hville_Doppler","twitter_site":"@Hville_Doppler","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mandi Hargrave","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/"},"author":{"name":"Mandi Hargrave","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/9411105d64e99263c7bfe9a8eb092ab4"},"headline":"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home","datePublished":"2017-04-01T14:45:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-01T15:05:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/"},"wordCount":409,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg","keywords":["breaking"],"articleSection":["Community"],"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/","name":"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home - Huntsville Doppler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg","datePublished":"2017-04-01T14:45:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-01T15:05:10+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2017\/04\/Chef-Eric-Photo-full.jpg","width":708,"height":336,"caption":"Chef Eric Gagnon (Photo: Melissa Polischuk)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/volunteer-chef-helps-make-hospice-huntsville-feel-even-like-home\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Volunteer chef helps make Hospice Huntsville feel even more like home"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/","name":"Huntsville Doppler","description":"Read Local","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization","name":"Huntsville Doppler","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg","width":760,"height":212,"caption":"Huntsville Doppler"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Hville_Doppler","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/huntsville_doppler\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/9411105d64e99263c7bfe9a8eb092ab4","name":"Mandi Hargrave","description":"Mandi was no stranger to Muskoka growing up and as she got older she knew this was the place she wanted to call home. She loves time with her dog, being outside and laughs shared with friends. She loves sitting down to chat and hear a good story, one you\u2019ll hopefully let her share with the Huntsville community.","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/author\/mandihargrave\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}