Dr. Polly Dengel

Dr. Polly Dengel, is a Cleveland Clinic trained Internal Medicine specialist. She has long had a preference for preventing disease rather than treating it. Perhaps this stems from her training in Whole Person Care at the Loma Linda School of Medicine. This journey has led her to personal dietary and other lifestyle changes as she raised and cooked for her family and eventually entered retirement. She began offering classes for Cleveland Clinic patients in Spirituality and Healing in her office lobby in the early 2000s. From 2006 until the pandemic in 2020, she offered healthy cooking classes for the community at The Community for Better Living. As more research information became available, she incorporated the Whole Foods, Plant-based diet into her classes, believing this diet to be the healthiest option.

Most recently, she has produced weekly Wellness Wednesday videos for CBL, covering a variety of dietary, fitness, and mental health/spirituality issues. One of her roles at CBL's Food Pantry is ordering the food for distribution. Her dream has been to find a way to gently educate and encourage Food Pantry clients to adopt healthier food choices and develop healthier options to offer them.