Those who know me also know that my wife, Gracie Cavnar, founded Recipe for Success, a school based effort to combat childhood through teaching school kids proper nutrition and making the right choices, as well as growing and preparing their own food. When she began the concept, she enlisted the help of Houston based chefs to volunteer their time to teach 
cooking in the schools. Since, the program has become the largest program of its kind with 60 chefs teaching 3,000 kids per month during the school day, putting them in touch with their food with a concept now known as "Seed to Plate".
Today, First Lady Michelle Obama is kicking off her Chefs Move to Schools program as part of her Let's Move program, also aimed at childhood obesity, her primary focus. Recognizing Recipe for Success' pioneering work in this area, she has invited Gracie and 6 Houston chefs, including Top Chef star, Monica Pope, to join her for the Rose Garden ceremony with other chefs from all over the country. The White House blog did a piece on the program yesterday.
Congratulations, Gracie!
Oh, btw...You can donate to Recipe for Success here, if you'd like to help.
Monica's restaurant is T'afia, which I highly recommend.
cooking in the schools. Since, the program has become the largest program of its kind with 60 chefs teaching 3,000 kids per month during the school day, putting them in touch with their food with a concept now known as "Seed to Plate".Today, First Lady Michelle Obama is kicking off her Chefs Move to Schools program as part of her Let's Move program, also aimed at childhood obesity, her primary focus. Recognizing Recipe for Success' pioneering work in this area, she has invited Gracie and 6 Houston chefs, including Top Chef star, Monica Pope, to join her for the Rose Garden ceremony with other chefs from all over the country. The White House blog did a piece on the program yesterday.
Congratulations, Gracie!
Oh, btw...You can donate to Recipe for Success here, if you'd like to help.
Monica's restaurant is T'afia, which I highly recommend.
Congratulations to Gracie for national reconition of your vision, passion, organizational skills, and most importantly, your concern for the well being of our kids, the future of this country.
please pass along my congrats to your wife, and thanks for the uplifting post. in what has recently been dark days following the gulf coast oil catastrophe, a story about positive impact on children is refreshing. my son volunteers with urban harvest through kpft and has been telling me about some of the work with hisd teaching children about growing healthy, affordable food. he wants to be a teacher, and will soon start his college classes. it is thrilling as a parent to see my two young adult sons inherit my passion for community service, finding ways to solve the problems of struggling people. seems your wife has achieved both personal and professional success with the recipe for success. since we relocated to my parent's home my son planted a home garden which is coming along nicely, he hopes one day to sell his own vegetables. he's spent a lot of time self teaching about composting, and bought worms which at first i thought was crazy lol. but now many of the neighborhood children are interested so i know the initiative for schools is a good idea. thank god the obama's are in the white house, and people like your wife have support to foster their very worthwhile initiatives. and how wonderful for monica pope, who deserves the very best.
Three cheers for Gracie and Michelle Obama! ;-)
Congrats to Mrs. Cavnar. A very worthwhile cause.
This is great, and I add my congratulations to Grace. If this program works out as it should, the children will learn more about nutrition than many of our doctors know. When I went to the doctor the other day I noticed that over half of the people working there were very overweight, and the same seems to be true in hospitals as well.
A great program. Spend a little time around the schools and you become aware that a lot of the kids of today aren't eating properly. My wife volunteers as a Master Gardener to acquaint kids with vegetable gardening as a path to proper eating so I get asked to help with some fo the heavy work. When you look around you become aware of the need for better food choices.
This is a very worthwhile and important cause. I also enjoyed watching Monica on Top Chef Masters and have been to shop her farmer's market a few times. I signed up to volunteer, as I enjoy cooking and baking and would love the opportunity to help children learn more about healthy food choices. Thank you for posting this information Bob.