When Harshada Prakash Temghare was in her early 30s, her face began to swell until, she said, it looked “like a football”. Tests found nothing for nearly four months. Then a chest X-ray showed a lump larger than an apple on her right side. It was lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.During her treatment, doctors proposed a package of chemotherapy and radiation that the family estimated would have cost Rs 20 to 22 lakh. Her husband, Prakash Temghare, said one question haunted them. “Nobody in our house has any addiction. How did cancer happen at 32 or 33?”Oncologists gave no definite cause, but the family said they pointed to changing diets and lifestyles as a possible factor. The couple decided to overhaul what they ate. They turned to Abhinav Farmers Club, a collective of organic farmers, and to Dnyaneshwar Bodke, whom they call their guru. They also adopted home remedies, including a herbal decoction, turmeric and tulsi in milk.The family said the lump dissolved after two chemotherapy cycles, though doctors still advised a longer course. Each cycle meant a 15-day hospital stay.Temghare said recovery gave her a sense of a second life. “I felt God had sent me back for a reason,” she said. She decided to take up annadaan, the service of feeding others, to do what she could for the next generation. Harshada Prakash Temghare with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari (Express)Within a year of her illness, the family began cooking organic meals in Pune’s Wargaon area. The kitchen uses copper, brass and clay vessels, with no aluminium or steel. The oil is wood-pressed and the ghee comes from indigenous Gir cows. Priya, who handles marketing for the farmers’ collective, said Temghare first came to the group as a customer, buying vegetables for her own recovery. Once well, she noticed that office-going women often turned to junk food when no tiffin was available at home.Story continues below this adDuring Covid-19, when many people struggled to find home-cooked food, the kitchen supplied meals to around 800 patients. The team developed a “Brahma Khichdi” from mixed dals, Indrayani and Ambemohar rice, ginger and whole spices.Today the service dispatches more than 1,000 tiffins a day to Hinjawadi, Wakad and nearby areas. It offers Jain meals and has served millet-based food since 2019, well before 2023 was declared the International Year of Millets. After coverage on Doordarshan and in the regional press, Gadkari’s personal assistant sought organic food in Pune and was directed to her. After he praised the meal, Gadkari called the family and invited them to Nagpur.About 20 women from Abhinav Bachat Gat, a self-help group, now work with the venture, and eight auto-rickshaw drivers handle deliveries. “The biggest happiness is that women are earning through us,” she said. She has also begun farming her own land under Bodke’s guidance and recently received a Mahila Shetkari (woman farmer) certificate. She was among nine Pune women felicitated at the Mahalakshmi temple.She has spoken at lectures for cancer patients and credits her husband and friends for keeping her positive. “In the end, a way always opens up,” she said. “That is what I want people to know.”