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Challenge Grant A Huge Success
Recently, an anonymous donor pledged $25,000 to Spoons and challenged us to raise another $25,000. We are thrilled to announce that we raised an additional $35,000, for a grand total of $60,000!
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Donor Spotlight: Rodrigue Chebli
Rodrigue Chebli hails from a real "foodie" family, with several of his family members owning restaurants and hotels in his native country of Lebanon. "I starting helping in my uncle's restaurant when I was 10, and then at 14 I went to work in my brother's pastry franchise," he says. Rodrigue went on to graduate from New York City College of Technology's Hospitality Management program, and he is passionate about people enjoying cooking and eating together.
Rodrigue became aware of Spoons Across America when he volunteered for an AIWF New York Chapter Days of Taste® event. He felt so strongly about our mission of introducing children to fresh, healthy food that he decided to donate money in addition to his time. "Children need to be exposed to different types of food from a young age," he says. If all they eat is fast food, they won't know how real food tastes."
Cheers to Rodrigue - and to every individual Spoons donor. Your support is invaluable to us. We thank you, and most importantly, the kids thank you.
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Mission Statement
Spoons Across America ® - the source for children's culinary education - is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating children, teachers, and families about the benefits of healthy eating. We work to influence the eating habits of children through hands-on education that celebrates the connection to local farmers and the important tradition of sharing meals around the family table.
We make a difference in the lives of children and their families through food and nutrition education.
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How Sweet It Is! Spoons Presents Third Annual "Ag Literacy Day"
Here are three things you might not know about maple syrup:
- New York produces more than any state except Vermont
- It takes 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup
- The sugar maple is the official tree of New York State
This April, 2nd-graders across New York City learned all this and much more about the sticky, delicious stuff we slather on our pancakes, during the third annual New York Ag Literacy Day. The Cornell University Agriculture School program promotes awareness of New York State's thriving food production system.
Spoons Across America participated for the second year running. This year, thanks to the generosity of our donors and friends, we more than tripled our reach to include nearly 1,400 students in 13 public schools in communities including Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, Chinatown and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Recently, when we announced that an anonymous donor had pledged $25,000 and challenged us to raise an additional $25,000, we knew that our supporters would help us meet our goal - but we never imagined you would exceed it! With your help, we raised an additional $35,000, for a grand total of $60,000.
"We were overwhelmed by the response of our donors both 'big' and 'small'," says Julia V. Jordan, Spoons president. "Their support has an immediate impact on our ability to expose more children across the country to the benefits of real, locally-grown food. Ag Literacy Day is just one example of how the additional funds enable us to reach so many more students than we could before." (Read more about two of our very special donors in this issue).
Now in its third year, Ag Literacy Day introduces students to products that are locally grown and produced. This year, maple syrup took center stage. Spoons trained classroom teachers and other volunteers to engage kids in a fun, hands-on lesson that incorporated science, literature, geography and economics, among other subjects. Teachers read Sugarbush Spring, by Martha Wilson Chall, a picture book that shows how maple syrup is harvested. Spoons also donated a total of 61 books to each participating classroom library.
The students got to meet  maple syrup producers, and the highlight of the day was a maple syrup (and sap) tasting. Said one kindergartener after sampling the sap, "It's like maple syrup juicy water." Another child said the syrup "tastes like honey and makes my throat feel better." And one youngster observed, "I tasted bumblebees but it smells like pancakes!"
Observing the children tasting and learning, one teacher at PS 1 remarked, "We need to have more programs like this." We couldn't agree more!
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A Beautiful Friendship
Sometimes, the chemistry is just right. That's how we feel about our very fruitful partnership with Danny Meyer's restaurant Blue Smoke. In 2006, when Blue Smoke's managing partner Mark Maynard-Parisi approached us about working together, we jumped at the chance. As Maynard-Parisi explains, "We knew that we shared the goal of exposing people - especially kids - to fresh, real food." The restaurant donates $1 to Spoons for each children's menu ordered.
Blue Smoke is part of Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), which also operates Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla, and Shake Shack. The group has been a pioneer in forming partnerships with the communities in which they're located, focusing on such causes as hunger relief, hospice care and children's music education.
"We wanted to work with Spoons because we share the same core value of taking care of our community," says Mr. Maynard-Parisi. "As a restaurant that serves over a quarter million people each year, we knew that we could help raise awareness about children's nutrition simply by including Spoons on our menu."
Since the partnership began, Blue Smoke has donated nearly $7,000 to Spoons. Also, kid's menu sales have increased by 20% -- making it a win-win for everyone. "Our guests have clearly connected to what we and Spoons are trying to achieve," says Maynard-Parisi.
"Because we can count on Blue Smoke's ongoing support, we are able to make real and sustained improvements to our programs," says Julia Jordan. "For instance, we will expand the number of tours we provide to families and schoolchildren in the fall through our GreenMarket Guides program."
The restaurant has a link to Spoons on its website, and we have one for Blue Smoke on our homepage. This is just one more example of how we increase our impact by working together.
"If we can help improve the lives of even a few kids, we know there will be a ripple effect on their families, schools, and neighborhoods," says Maynard-Parisi. We second that, and we look forward to the continuation of a beautiful friendship.
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