Tag Archives: obesity

Featured: Washington DC Chef-preneur & Micro-Greens Founder Allison Sosna

17 Aug

CHEF-PRENEUR & MICRO-GREENS FOUNDER ALLISON SOSNA (Forkly: @chefallisosna)

“Using it as a Chef, Forkly is a great tool for market research: to see what people want and where they’re getting it!”

As many of you know, Forkly recently hosted a DC happy hour at Hank’s Oyster Bar with Chef Alli Sosna. We wanted to meet some of our wonderful DC users, connect with fabulous local food bloggers & new friends, and most importantly, help raise awareness for Chef Alli’s most recent project, Micro-Greens: a program to teach kids (and their families!) to cook great, healthy food on a SNAP (food stamp) budget.

You can follow her culinary adventures on Forkly and learn more about her fantastic projects below, but before you do anything…there’s only 10 days left to donate… so take a look and help her launch Micro-Greens! The money donated will help buy aprons, support food costs and menu planning costs, pay salary for two part-time workers in the program, purchase basic equipment needs (bowls, spoons, spatulas, knives, cutting boards), and more!

More about Chef Alli:

Chef Allison Sosna is bringing healthy eating to the forefront thanks to her continuing love affair with cooking. Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in the farmlands of New Jersey, Chef Sosna eventually landed in Washington D.C. at American University. It was then, during her years as a rower, that she realized how important food was to the body and that it impacted not only how you felt, but how you performed.

This led Sosna to Italy to learn more about food and eventually to culinary school. She spent time working at Barton Seaver, The Inn at Little Washington, a Relais & Chateau property, and Dean & Deluca where she prepared meals for retail operations and large-scale catering projects.

Fast forward a few years – Sosna became a part of the culinary team at DC Central Kitchen, as an Executive Chef to aid in overseeing school food and catering services. This may have been the tipping point in Sosna’s career as from it, she created PINE Benefit Corporation.

Pine’s mission is to break the mold and do something different by creating positive change in the community using food-service related ventures. Most recently Pine launched “Cooking with Alli,” an online radio show (Tune in on Sundays, 6-7pm EST) on how to buy, eat, and cook healthy and see how others are doing so in the community. A percentage of Pine’s profits will go to launching Micro-Greens as well.

Along the way, Chef Alli has worked and talked with leaders from First Lady Michelle Obama to Chefs Alice Waters and Jamie Oliver about the state of food in America; competed on Food Network’s Thanksgiving episode of CHOPPED (2011); and received local awards and scholarships to move forward with her work to help promote healthy eating in American homes and schools.

To meet her in person, stop by the DC Green Festival on Sept 30, where Chef Alli will be speaking at 2pm, “Snap into the SNAP Program: Healthy Cooking on a Budget.” You can also learn more about Chef Alli’s endeavors on Twitter at @ChefAlliSosna and @MicroGreensDC–in the meantime, have a look of some of her delicious tastes below and follow her on Forkly…we know we’ll be watching closely as Micro-Greens, Cooking with Alli, and Pine take off!

Jamie Oliver Foundation’s Food Revolution Day, Saturday May 19, 2012

18 May

Somewhere along the line, our relationship with food broke down - Jamie Oliver

What is Food Revolution Day?! The Jamie Oliver Foundation explains:

The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation launches its first-ever Food Revolution Day this Saturday, May 19 to inspire, educate, and empower people everywhere to stand up for real food. The weekend of events will bring together an international community of foodies, chefs, parents, educators, companies, activists, and celebrities to arm people with the knowledge and tools to make healthier food choices.

Food Revolution Day will inspire people around the world to make small, simple changes that will lead to healthier lives. Recent reports by the Institute of Medicine and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reveal that two-thirds of U.S. adults and almost a third of children are either overweight or obese. It is predicted that by 2030, 42% of adult Americans will be obese.

You can visit foodrevolutionday.com to find and create local food events, sign up to host a dinner party, and request to bring food education to your school or workplace. More than 140 cities nationwide from New York and Chicago to Kennesaw, GA, are taking action.

Below are just a few social dinner events that we’ve found for you to participate in this Saturday but keep in mind that there are hundreds of events across the globe, so you can always find one near you.

Not able to attend? No problem! There will also be Google+ Hangouts On Air, so you can catch Jamie Oliver’s dinner party with some lucky fans and supporters in a live, multi-person video conversation. Tune into the broadcast at 8:00 P.M. EDT from Food Revolution’s Google+ page. It will also be shown live on the homepage of foodrevolutionday.com AND youtube.com/foodrevolution.

Spread the word and happy, healthy eating!