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Minnesota Cancer Patient Gives Back With Food Truck

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ChefLucasFood

Chef Lucas and his food truck
Photo: ChefLucasFood

The Make-A-Wish Foundation has been making dreams come true for thousands of patients with life-threatening illnesses since 1980. The wishes have ranged from wanting to meet celebrities to asking for travel to dream destinations. In fact, John Cena holds the record with the organization for most wishes granted by a celebrity with 450 wishes and counting.

One Minnesota patient with Hodgkin’s lymphoma decided to do something a little different with his wish. After all of the support from his community during his illness, 12-year-old Lucas Hobbs wanted to give back to them and say thank you. His official wish was to serve food to others using a food truck.

From that wish, the ChefLucasFood project was born! The idea and name came from the film Chef that Lucas loved to watch while enduring his chemotherapy treatments, which is about a father and son who open their own food truck and drive it from city to city. Make-A-Wish contacted the Minnesota Food Truck Association, and they worked together to get the trucks and schedule stops at the Minneapolis Police Department, senior center, homeless shelter, church, and the Minneapolis Children’s Hospital (where Lucas was treated) to hand out free food as a truck employee.

“When I was sick, people brought me food from our church, and it was really nice of them. It kinda got me thinking about my Make-A-Wish, so I asked my parents if I could use my wish to help others.” Lucas told CBS Minnesota.

So far, Chef Lucas has given food to dozens of police officers and over a thousand people at his church, St. John Neumann in Eagan. Food trucks from all over the area are pitching in to help fulfill his wish and provide food, and he’s on track to make all the stops in his itinerary.

Lucas’ cancer is in remission, and The News Wheel wishes him all the best. He’s a pretty awesome kid, and we can’t wait to see what he does next! To follow Chef Lucas, check out his Facebook and Twitter pages.