FEATURED GUESTS:
Our fourth show of The Moment, The Power of Choice features the following guests:
Chef Ann Cooper, Renegade Lunch Lady of BVSD School Food Project Ann is the Interim Director of Nutrition Services for the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD). She has a storied career and is the founder of Lunch Lessons LLC a consulting company and F3: Food Family and Farming Foundation, both organizations dedicated to improving the health of America’s children. She has written numerous books, most recently, Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children. Chef Cooper, is a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and was one of the first fifty women to be certified as an Executive Chef by the educational arm of the American Culinary Federation. Ann has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time Magazine, CBS Morning Show, CNN & PBS, among many others – as well as, featured on local and National radio shows.
Directing the BVSD Nutrition Services team she is accomplishing the first steps of significant system change in how meals are prepared and served to the students of Boulder. Food access and equitable choices for all children is a cornerstone of this program, and she and her team are working individually with every school in the district to help create the best possible environment for feeding our children. Ann has an amazing breadth of knowledge and experiences and we are enormously grateful to have her working in our school district to improve the health and nutrition of all our students. Please learn more about Ann and her revolutionary advocacy work on upgrading school lunches for children across America. www.bvsd.org/schoolfoodproject, www.lunchlessons.org
Robin Luff, co-chair of BVSD School Food Project Robin is a past board member of Impact on Education, a member of the board of trustees of the Community Foundation, as well as on the board of Summit Charter Middle School. Along with her husband, Kevin, an executive at Hewlett Packard and current board member of the Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA) they are longtime supporters of public education in Boulder Valley. Robin and Kevin emphasize three keys to their support of improved school food: 1) it only seems sensible that BVSD would have a leading edge school food program, 2) BVSD has some of the smartest students in the nation…we should also have the healthiest, from home to school, and 3) our family philanthropy tries to reach all areas of education, from after-school tutoring, to technology, to hands-on science programs to programs focusing on reducing the achievement gap. The BVSD School Food Project adds another layer to our mission. Robin is community leader, philanthropist and most importantly a loving and concerned parent who reaches beyond her own family to find ways to rally support and positively influence all the children and citizens in our community and beyond. Thank you Robin and Kevin for your generous support in improving our community and our world! www.impactoneducation.org, www.commfound.org
Kevin Natapow, co-founder of Momentum Momentum is a shop dedicated to the Fair Trade business model, which places people and sustainability at the heart of every business decision. Every product Momentum carries is crafted by hand and provides employment opportunities to artisans around the world: recycled sari throws are quilted by women who escaped Calcutta’s sex trade, aprons are embroidered by mothers with disabled children in Zimbabwe, and greeting cards are painted by women in Denver experiencing homelessness and poverty. Ten percent of Momentum’s profits are donated to social justice and environmental causes.
Kevin & Jenny were working in Nepal because they believed that international NGO work was their calling, Kevin worked for the United Nation’s High Commission for Refugees and Jenny conducted research for The Asia Foundation. While they found the work inspiring and imperative, they found themselves yearning to work for change in their own country. While trekking the Annapurna Circuit they had an “Aha Moment” that led to the birth of Momentum. All of a sudden they understood the beauty of the Fair Trade economic model and saw it as a way to work for social change in the U.S. as well as worldwide. We realized that opening a Fair Trade store was our calling and that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together! Upon returning to U.S., they got married and enrolled in graduate school in order to make their dream a reality. Visit their amazing store at 1625 Pearl Street Boulder, CO and their website to learn more about fair trade & the vision they made reality. www.ourmomentum.com
Street Moment Guest:
Kemi Ingram, MOMbo TV and “The Play Date” An author, activist and ’armchair theologian,’ Ingram holds a BS in Public Policy, Management and Planning from the University of Southern California, an MA in Theology from Fuller Seminary and an MTh in Applied Theology from Oxford University in England. Her entrepreneurial work has been featured in the U.S. as well as abroad, including; Self, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Business Journal and ABC News.
MOMbo TV is an internet television channel for mindful mothers. Our desire is to produce programming that engages, encourages and inspires moms to take meaningful actions on behalf of children everywhere. Whether it’s a weekly vlog post from Kemi Ingram’s Little Village Home Preschool or a MOMbo Media production of the original series, ‘The Playdate’ ….we hope that you feel empowered to do ’something wonderful’ on behalf of a child after watching us. Get Inspired by Kemi and her work at www.mombotv.com
Internal Dialog Guest:
Beth Osnes, Ph.D., Mothers Acting Up, University of Colorado Theatre Department
Beth is a professor of Theatre and co-founder of Mothers Acting Up, a movement to unite a million mothers to advocate on behalf of the world’s children. She has published many books and articles on both theatre and mothering. She is currently touring her program, The (M)other Tour, to cities in North America, Asia, and Africa.
As a scholar and practitioner of theatre, Beth Osnes is passionate about the potential of live performance and theatre to inspire and engage mothers and others to move from concern to action on behalf of our entire global family. Please visit mothersactingup.org to find out more about this amazing and far-reaching organization and the captivating work Beth has created.