Local Food Forum's "Better Dialogues" — Food Education and Its Impact: How Schools Inspire and Feed Our Youngest Eaters
Mon May 13, 2024 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT
Online, Zoom
Description
Co-hosts Bob Benenson of Local Food Forum and Chef Sarah Stegner of Prairie Grass Cafe welcome you to join the conversation at our next Local Food Forum's "Better" Dialogues" webinar, How Schools Inspire and Feed Our Youngest Eaters. Focused on the important topics of food education and food in schools, the webinar will take place on Monday, May 13 starting at 7 p.m. central time. Registration is open and the webinar is free to attend.
Here's our amazing guest lineup:
Alexandra DeSorbo-Quinn has been executive director of Pilot Light since 2014. Created four years earlier by a group of leading Chicago chefs, Pilot Light was working to integrate food education into the curriculum at just one Chicago public school at the time that Alex became head of the organization. In the decade since, she has led Pilot Light to enormous growth and influence. The organization now works directlyin many schools across Chicago and in more than two dozen school districts across the nation, has published Food Education Standards that are available for all schools to employ, and created the SnackTime Explorers program, a series of adaptable mini-lessons designed to supplement educators across the U.S. who participate in the USDA’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (FFVP) program.
Sebastian White is a clinical psychologist turned chef who was working to divert children in an underserved community from gangs when he started The Evolved Network in 2020. The Evolved Network is a Chicago non-profit that works with young people from under-resourced communities to provide education and support through farm-to-table experiences. Sebastian currently provides cooking lessons for students in several Chicago schools. He is also raising money to achieve his ultimate goal: to build out a restaurant and urban farm that will provide young participants with job, business and growing skills while providing therapeutic assistance for those who need it.
Also joined the webinar panel are Spence Medford and Christy Sherding of The Henry Ford, located in Dearborn, Michigan just outside Detroit. The organization has four working farms on its properties and has been very engaged in farm to school programs in its local area. Spence and Christy are spearheading a major national outreach as the Museum is planning to hold events in five cities in October to highlight National Farm to School Month. The event series is a pilot for an outgoing national presence for the Henry Ford Museum's farm to school advocacy.
Co-host Sarah Stegner, a two-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, is one of the strongest voices for positive food systems change in Chicago and the nation as a whole. Click on the link to learn more about Prairie Grass Cafe, which she has co-owned for 20 years.
Co-host Bob Benenson launched Local Food Forum in April 2021, after working for several years at a food systems non-profit, to provide a uniquely focused media platform about and for everyday heroes working across the spectrum of local food ecosystems. Though he spent 30 years previously as a political journalist in Washington, D.C., he was an early adopter of the Good Food movement as a consumer and avid home cook. Bob invites you to visit Local Food Forum — and hopes you will join the Local Food Forum community by becoming a subscriber.
Sarah and Bob thank our webinar series supporters: Mariano's, Landmark Pest Management, Chicago Chefs Cook, and Community Food Navigator.