It is always my honor to bestow the Order of the Chocolate Fish upon members of the UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders team for going beyond the call of duty in service of our mission. On this occasion, I am so pleased to induct two of our highly dedicated clinicians, Kate Cardoza, MSW, LCSW and Rachel Finholt, MSW, LCSW into the Order of the Chocolate Fish.

Kate and Rachel are both Clinical Social Workers with the UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders. They work tirelessly spanning both inpatient and partial hospitalization levels of care to provide family based therapy for patients and family members throughout their time in treatment. In 2011, Kate and Rachel identified a need for additional family programming to provide even more support for family members and to offer a new opportunity for meal support. Out of this idea was born the Multi-Family Meal Program. This monthly program provides a place for family members to come together, learn more about eating disorders and treatment, and support their loved ones through a community meal.

Kate and Rachel have been instrumental at every step in the process of coordinating this program, including securing the funding needed to make these meals possible, coordinating with hospital catering to ensure we have enough food for our families each month, working with both the inpatient and partial hospitalization treatment teams to arrange for the necessary staff support at each dinner, organizing a schedule of speakers throughout the year to speak with patients and families, and overseeing every step of the meal from set-up to clean-up! A little over one year after the start of these meals, our families have benefited immensely from the efforts put forth by Rachel and Kate.

The UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders is grateful for Rachel and Kate’s dedication to our patients and their families, and we are very excited to see the Multi-Family Meal Program continue to grow!

It is my honor and pleasure to bestow the Order of the Chocolate Fish onto Kate and Rachel. Congratulations and thank you!