“We want to change the way America eats by educating every child about food, giving families the skills and knowledge to cook again, and motivating people to stand up for their rights to better food; which in turn will fight the epidemic of obesity“
Like many people, I first learned about Jamie Oliver on TV. I already followed him before his Food Revolution days and loved his easy way of cooking, using fresh ingredients. Then on December 2012, I was approached by his team to host a Twitter party under their hashtag #foodrevparty. I have very honored, to say the least.
I am so pleased to announce that I was asked to become a Real Food Blogger Ambassador for Food Revolution and a part of a group of passionate, talented and amazing food bloggers and cooking activists to help fight childhood obesity with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and the Feed US Better campaign.
This campaign is quite simple, to help raise $1,000,000 to help with projects in Los Angeles, California where Jamie Oliver is based.
Some may say that raising money for a cause that is concentrated in California doesn’t make any sense because I live in Chicago. I should be helping local food causes because it affects by direct community. Well, I am here to nip that in the bud and say that I support any cause small or large, local or national, that will help our fast-food eating, non-cooking society, turn into one that loves, respects, and enjoys a simple home-cooked meal.
In addition, I do my best to take part in the local community by hosting free Great Everyday Meals cooking classes at Whole Foods Market, have covered Veggie Fest in Naperville, Illinois on my third year this year, as well as a sponsor of the Good Food Festival in Chicago in March, just to name a few. My blog and cooking show is about showing busy moms and families that Great Everyday Meals can be done with simple ingredients and basic cooking techniques, so this cause is something that is in line with my mission as Momma Cuisine…and I hope you join me!
So please, give $5, $15, $50…whatever you can give is much appreciated and will help so, so much!
More about the campaign:
Why Los Angeles? Over the next three years, JOFF will operate from Los Angeles. There we have already created a world class cooking program that operates from the flagship Food Revolution Truck and in addition we will establish a corporate and scalable cooking program and our first kitchen. Once this is developed we can use the LA model as the template to develop a proven model and expand national.
School Food & Policy Change: Our campaigns team will provide on-going support for a local grassroots movement around better school meals and a “Fresh prep” via central kitchens with LAUSD. We will continue to fight against flavoured milk and junk food for our children. Work will continue to build local coalitions for better parent dialogue and improved school meals in neighbouring areas and will be teaming up with well-respected food activist Alice Waters on a school kitchen garden project, amongst a variety of initiatives.
Food Education Program and Kitchens: JOFF has developed our first community and corporate wellness Food Education Programme. It will be set up as a consultancy/scalable program. Our first kitchen will launch in LA, in partnership with the UCLA and the American Heart Association. As in the current program on the truck, the course will be an innovative, fun, hands-on cooking and nutrition program to empower communities and/or employees.
Online Activism: We will continue to drive communication via our huge support base to a highly engaged core audience and push for more signatures via the Food Revolution website. We will communicate with our network of 600+ Facebook groups across the U.S and as with LA we are encouraging these inspirational groups, who are already making change within the country to inspire and build momentum for others to follow. All of this will enable our database to group and follow when needed. The team managing this area work on an on-going basis will build and keep the group engaged. The media now tags Jamie as America’s ‘School Food Champion.’
DONATE!
Here are other Food Revolution Advocates in my team:
Brenda Thompson @ Meal Planning Magic
Kim Gerber @ Out of the Box Food
Natalie Perry @ Perry’s Plate
Thippi Fleckenstein @ Noodle On That
Amanda Wendt @ The Organic Trail
Amy Wilcox @ Mia Cucinas Cucina
Yvette Garfield @ Handstand Kids
Kelly Lester @ Easy Lunchboxes
Michelle Sybert @ Michelle’s Journal Corner (and Muffin Tin Mom!)
Jennifer Tyler Lee @ Crunch A Color
Laura Fuentes @ Momables
Karen Le Billion @ karenlebillon
Katie Newell @ Health Nut Foodie
Nicole Cibellis @ A Family That Eats Together
Kelly Doscher @ The Food Minded Mama
Gwen Wilson @ Simply Healthy Family
Jamie Schler (honorary) @ Life’s A Feast
Bonnie Stoilkovich @ Zuma Organic
Shanna Ferrigno @ Ferrigno Fit
Bri DeRosa @ Red Round Or Green
Isabelle Vorhies @ Isabelle At Home
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealFoodAdvocates
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[...] I started following Karen Le Billon on Twitter before I even knew she had a book called, “French Kids Eat Everything”. Her tweets about kids’ eating habits and food info made her someone I was interested in and was like-minded in the idea of simple home-cooking not only for physical sustainability, but in teaching kids about food and cooking basics. Also, Karen and I are both Jamie Oliver, Food Revolution advocates. [...]
[...] it was announced that I, as well as many other food blog partners around the country have become Real Food Advocate’s for Food Revolution, founded by Jamie Oliver. At the same time that this was announced, I received Chicagoan, Sarah [...]
Johanna, I respectfully disagree with your notion that $1M raised for LA projects will have any positive impact on Chicagoans. I actually find it pretty cheeky that Jamie Oliver (a multi-millionaire himself) is asking money from ordinary Americans to support what is essentially a local project. I understand the scaling theory – but it’s long way away before something like that would ever make its way to Chicago and we need help now. Certainly, there’s enough wealth in LA to raise that money (and more) in a single evening when a celebrity of Jamie’s stature is doing the asking.
There are great organizations, like Common Threads, Seven Generations Ahead, Fresh Moves, Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters, and my own, Purple Asparagus, that are making an impact on people right here, right now, with far lesser budgets.
Hi Melissa. Thank you for your perspective and I agree with you that something that’s happening in LA will take some time to reach us here in Chicago. And I also agree that we have many great organizations who need our support like Common Threads and Purple Asparagus who I’ve wanted to hook up with and hoping can do so this summer!
I think that any kid, near or far can use our help and through this campaign, because of JO’s celebrity, I was still able to reach people who have never heard of organizations like this who are pushing for real food advocacy. So, I will support anyone who has the same mission.
I’m looking forward to talking with you more about your expertise in the subject and learning!