Staff at Emcon Services Inc. released a cook book this month with all the proceeds going to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

“Old Time Favourites from the Road to the Kitchen,” features heart-healthy recipes in the book’s “Heart and Soul Food,” section.

“Women haven’t had the same types of symptoms as men, and as this is an office full of women, we are always on the up and up about what we can do to bring awareness,” said Jacquie Hall, administrative assistant for Emcon and facilitator of the book.

“So this year we had a heart-healthy luncheon and everyone found recipes that would be heart healthy — that were low in fat and qualified as being good for the heart.”

Many of the staff at Emcon enjoy cooking, she said. They called themselves the Road Warriors, because they work for a company that maintains and builds roads. The industry also triggered the title of the book.

Each book contains 250 recipes and 100 books have already been sold, mostly to friends and family of the staff.

Emcon paid for the printing costs for the 300 books.

Each book cost approximately $4 to produce, which Hall said is cheap in comparison to most other publishing companies. The company they used, Gateway Publishers Ltd., prints for various non-profit organizations.

The staff traditionally participates in various competitions with other groups about how to raise awareness of issues related to heart and stroke.

The recipes come from about 25 members of the Emcon staff from the company’s 25 locations throughout the province. Another 10 affiliate offices contributed.

Each book costs $10 and can be purchased by phoning Emcon at 250-378-4176.

If all 300 books are sold, the contribution to the Heart and Stroke Foundation will be $3,000.

“I don’t know, if we sell all of these, whether there will be a second printing or not,” Hall added. “Mother’s Day is coming up and what a good present this is.”

Anyone who wants to track donations from the cook book sales can visit a donations tracker on a Heart and Stroke Foundation page. Visit www.merrittherald.com for the link.