couldnât put the genie back in the bottle.â
For ten years Gracie talked to experts and met with officials, teachers, principals and chefs. She envisioned her role would be as a yenta, a matchmaker who would connect volunteers and health and nutrition organizations to turn the epidemic around. Eventually, it became apparent she needed to do more.
âI realized that if I really wanted to make something happen, we had to be the ones spearheading and managing it,â she admits. âSo here we are.â
Good food for all
Today the foundation has eighteen employees and several hundred volunteers, including more than sixty top chefs who donate their time to the Chefâs Advisory Board and work with the children through the Chefs in Schools⢠program. Classes have also expanded to include after-school and summer camps.
âI never thought that one hour a month would have such an effect on children, but after one year I could see a change in how they spoke about food,â says Randy Evans, an area chef. âIt wasnât just something that came from a box, but it was produce that came from the earth and needed respect.â
At least eighty-five percent of the children in five original Recipe for Success participating schools are part of the federal free or reduced lunch program and often their only meals come from school. Now the program is available in a broader range of communities, but Gracie remains particularly focused on lower income neighborhoods.
For the first year, Gracie taught all the classes, but now most of her time is spent behind the scenes. She is hard at work fine-tuning and designing a new curriculum, developing a related television show, writing her cookbooks and expanding Recipe for Success to more schools and community centers across the country. Sheâs also finalizing details to build a 100-acre urban farm overlooking Houstonâs skyline. In 2010, she had more than 120 schools and districts on her waiting list to bring the program to them, too, and she and her board launched a national push to put Recipe for Successâs Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education⢠in every community in America.
Busy, yes, but children will still find Gracie rolling up her sleeves and digging in the dirt with them. Her philosophyâif people cared as much about food and cooking as she does, they would treat it with care and moderationâdrives her to be hands-on, too.
She thinks back to a little boy who refused to participate in the program at first, a boy who turned up his nose at anything green. Every day his mother would show up at school with his lunch in a fast food bag. But on the last day of the program, as he gleefully cut, stirred and diced vegetables with his friends, he waved his mother and the takeout lunch away.
âHe wouldnât even touch it,â says Gracie. âThis is a huge gulf that we crossed.â She admits that she has so many other success stories she doesnât know where to begin. âWhat we teach is a lesson theyâll have for life.â
MERYL SAWYER
Worth the Risk
MERYL SAWYER is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of twenty-five romantic-suspense novels, one historical novel and one anthology. Meryl has won an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Romantic Suspense as well as an RT Book Reviews award for Best New Contemporary Author. Meryl lives in Newport Beach, California, with her three golden retrievers. She loves to hear from readers and may be contacted at her Web site at www.merylsawyer.com.
Chapter 1
Lexi Morrison swept through the doors of Stovall Middle School along with a gust of spring wind. She waved at the secretary as she sailed down the hall to the cafeteria to volunteer in her sisterâs class. She hated being late, but it couldnât be helped. Professor Thompson had kept her behind to compliment her work. It would have been unspeakably rude not to listen, especially
For ten years Gracie talked to experts and met with officials, teachers, principals and chefs. She envisioned her role would be as a yenta, a matchmaker who would connect volunteers and health and nutrition organizations to turn the epidemic around. Eventually, it became apparent she needed to do more.
âI realized that if I really wanted to make something happen, we had to be the ones spearheading and managing it,â she admits. âSo here we are.â
Good food for all
Today the foundation has eighteen employees and several hundred volunteers, including more than sixty top chefs who donate their time to the Chefâs Advisory Board and work with the children through the Chefs in Schools⢠program. Classes have also expanded to include after-school and summer camps.
âI never thought that one hour a month would have such an effect on children, but after one year I could see a change in how they spoke about food,â says Randy Evans, an area chef. âIt wasnât just something that came from a box, but it was produce that came from the earth and needed respect.â
At least eighty-five percent of the children in five original Recipe for Success participating schools are part of the federal free or reduced lunch program and often their only meals come from school. Now the program is available in a broader range of communities, but Gracie remains particularly focused on lower income neighborhoods.
For the first year, Gracie taught all the classes, but now most of her time is spent behind the scenes. She is hard at work fine-tuning and designing a new curriculum, developing a related television show, writing her cookbooks and expanding Recipe for Success to more schools and community centers across the country. Sheâs also finalizing details to build a 100-acre urban farm overlooking Houstonâs skyline. In 2010, she had more than 120 schools and districts on her waiting list to bring the program to them, too, and she and her board launched a national push to put Recipe for Successâs Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education⢠in every community in America.
Busy, yes, but children will still find Gracie rolling up her sleeves and digging in the dirt with them. Her philosophyâif people cared as much about food and cooking as she does, they would treat it with care and moderationâdrives her to be hands-on, too.
She thinks back to a little boy who refused to participate in the program at first, a boy who turned up his nose at anything green. Every day his mother would show up at school with his lunch in a fast food bag. But on the last day of the program, as he gleefully cut, stirred and diced vegetables with his friends, he waved his mother and the takeout lunch away.
âHe wouldnât even touch it,â says Gracie. âThis is a huge gulf that we crossed.â She admits that she has so many other success stories she doesnât know where to begin. âWhat we teach is a lesson theyâll have for life.â
MERYL SAWYER
Worth the Risk
MERYL SAWYER is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of twenty-five romantic-suspense novels, one historical novel and one anthology. Meryl has won an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Romantic Suspense as well as an RT Book Reviews award for Best New Contemporary Author. Meryl lives in Newport Beach, California, with her three golden retrievers. She loves to hear from readers and may be contacted at her Web site at www.merylsawyer.com.
Chapter 1
Lexi Morrison swept through the doors of Stovall Middle School along with a gust of spring wind. She waved at the secretary as she sailed down the hall to the cafeteria to volunteer in her sisterâs class. She hated being late, but it couldnât be helped. Professor Thompson had kept her behind to compliment her work. It would have been unspeakably rude not to listen, especially
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