American Cancer Society’s Cultivate Event
Now in its second year, Cultivate is American Cancer’s Society’s culinary fundraising campaign built on Sacramento’s strengths. The event weaves farm-to-fork ingredients, local culinary talent and science of nutrition into one message: flavor is not the enemy of cancer prevention.
UC Davis Health’s Executive Chef Santana Diaz, and CSU Sacramento’s Dr. Jeannie Gazzaniga-Moloo, PhD, RDN, FAND served as nutrition co-chairs of the event. Diaz gathered 11 chefs from across Sacramento’s culinary scene: caterers, restaurant owners, and Michelin-star talent; while Gazzaniga-Moloo built a list of cancer-fighting ingredients for the chefs to choose from when creating their dishes. With the FIFA World Cup underway, each chef represented one of the eleven countries in play, turning the event menu into a global lineup.
“What we’re really trying to show through Cultivate is that food is medicine, but it should also bring joy; food nourishes more than our bodies and actually brings people together. And I really think that’s the heart of what we have here with Cultivate,” Dr. Gazzaniga-Moloo said.
Guests moved through the space sampling one bite after another. Spinach became a pesto paired with pillowy gnocchi. Beets were salt roasted and presented with smoked trout, yogurt, and roe. Seaweed was tossed with a poached shrimp salad, briny and light; and The Jacquelyn’s Executive Chef Taylor Lovelace’s Charred Orange Aguachile dish traded the usual citrus of lime or lemon for smoky and bright orange.
Signs at each station explained the health benefits of the chosen ingredient, turning every plate into a quiet lesson. CSU Sacramento nutrition students stood alongside the chefs, ready to answer questions and connect each recipe to the research behind it.
Dr. Jeannie Gazzaniga-Moloo is well versed in the relationship between cancer prevention and a healthy diet. Now a professor at CSU Sacramento, she has spent over 35 years working in nutrition. “Food is actually one of the few cancer risk factors we can influence… Along with physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding tobacco, limiting alcohol, and sun protection. We have this piece of diet or nutrition that we can really do something with,” she said.
Consistency is what matters most. Small habits, practiced again and again, do more for health than any single meal. Data and science point to plant foods as a powerful tool in cancer prevention, though no one ingredient carries that power alone. “Food as medicine really drives down to three simple ideas: flavor, fiber, and phytonutrients,” Gazzaniga-Moloo explains.
“It’s really the overall dietary pattern that’s most important. When we take a look at what that diet is, it’s one rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, herbs, and spices. That really can bring that punch for helping reduce our cancer risk… And that’s a beautiful thing about Cultivate is that hopefully we’re giving guests some ideas on how to do that,” she said.
It’s really the overall dietary pattern that’s most important. When we take a look at what that diet is, it’s one rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, herbs, and spices. That really can bring that punch for helping reduce our cancer risk… And that’s a beautiful thing about Cultivate is that hopefully we’re giving guests some ideas on how to do that.
Cancer doesn’t begin and end with a diagnosis, and it doesn’t just touch the life of the patient; it affects their families, loved ones, and caregivers. American Cancer Society (ACS) supports both the patient and their support system at every stage of the journey, providing critical care to cancer patients and survivors.
“A lot of times the focus goes mainly to the patient. And so I’ve been just thrilled to see Cultivate really honor the family as part of this whole unit, that can use the help and the guidance,” Dr. Gazzaniga-Moloo said.
In the end, Cultivate raised $1.4 million to support ACS’s mission of ending cancer as we know it. That money will fund lifesaving research, keep ACS’s patient services running (the 24/7 help line, free rides to treatment, lodging for families far from home), and back policy work that expands access to quality cancer care.
Supporting ACS’s mission doesn’t require a ticket to next year’s event. Attend, donate, or volunteer: each one moves the work forward. And for those who do want to be back in the room, mark the date. Next year’s Cultivate event lands Saturday, June 5, 2027, at Golden 1 Center.