Recipe for Success Foundation honored founding board members and agents of change at the annual Blue Plate Special Café Harvest Market & Awards Luncheon on November 18. Chairs Arvia and Jason Few and Kristen and John Berger topped fundraising goals thanks to the sold-out crowd of 400 guests attending the event at River Oaks Country Club, which garnered over $200,000 for the Foundation's award winning programs to combat childhood obesity.
In a special nod to the Foundation's tenth anniversary, founding board members, Amy Anton, Glen & Honi Boudreaux, Phyllis Childress and Kim Tutcher, along with early advisor, Peg Lee were honored for their seminal efforts to launch the non-profit in 2005 and sustained support throughout the intervening decade.
Robert Del Grande, chef-partner of RDG+Bar Annie and James Beard Award Winner, was thanked for being a founding member of the Chef's Advisory Board and named Chef of the Year. Del Grande was instrumental in designing the Foundation's signature Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ curriculum, and has long volunteered in fourth grade classrooms to teach children to cook as well as hosted many fundraising events through the decade.
Lance Gilliam, Real Estate Developer and Philanthropist, received the fifth annual Mayor's Award: Champion of Food Justice, in recognition of his assistance in launching Hope Farms, the Foundation's urban agricultural and farmer training site. After accepting his award, Gilliam commandeered the mic and asked the audience to step up with him to underwrite the costs for more schools to get the Foundation's Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ started. He raised $10,000 on the spot.
KPRC 2 Anchor, Rachel McNeill expressed the importance of nutrition education for our youth - citing the tremendous impact Recipe for Success has made through their Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™. While, Co-Chair Kristen Berger remarked how, "Looking at these children and seeing how this program effects them and teaches cultural tolerance as well as healthy food is what really roped me in."
Mistress of Ceremonies, Rachel McNeill, of KPRC 2 set the tone for the spirited luncheon program where ex-fashion editors, turned authors Laura Keogh and Ceri Marsh of How to Feed a Family: The Sweet Potato Chronicles demonstrated their easy family-friendly recipes and shared their golden rules to cooking.
Notables also in attendance included:. Former Mayor Bill White, Holly Alvis, Rachel Hovnanian, Bob Cavnar, Jessica Rossman, Drew Anton, Kristy Bradshaw, Mimi Del Grande, Susan Criner, Roz Pactor, Marsha Smart, Todd Waite, Laurann Claridge, Mary Fay Way, Susan Padon, Anne Kinder, Kara Vidal, Cathy Brock, Jennifer Gilliam, Isabel David, Estela Cockrell, Elizabeth Petersen, Bill Baldwin, Anita Smith, Brenda Love, Clayton Erikson, Peter Remington, Tina Pyne, Janet Cockrell Genevieve Patterson, Ileana Trevino, Laura Jaramillo, Denise Monteleone, Jeff Shell, Kelley Lubanko, Susan Sarofim, Sis Johnson, Marsha Montemayor, Rudy Guera, Valerie Dieterich, Kimberly Albright, Karen Garcia, Leisa Holland Nelson, Susan Pye, and Roxanne Neumann. Enjoy photos from the event in our Flikr Album linked here:
Have a question?