Amber Stott | Founder of Food Literacy Center
Bailarín Cellars celebrates those who do what they love. Their passion for life is unstoppable and their enthusiasm is infectious. We celebrate these "dancers" in our hero feature and learn from their words of wisdom.
WHAT MAKES YOU DANCE?
"Lots of things make me dance--and do carrot cartwheels! But there's one thing that makes my heart heavy: the fact that only 6% of kids eat their daily vegetables. We have a broken food system where junk food is marketed to children unregulated as "kid food," healthy produce isn't readily available in food deserts, and pizza sauce is considered a vegetable by federal school food guidelines.
Luckily, there's a lot of dancing and kale kicks that happen at Food Literacy Center! We create successful, danceable moments with our mission to inspire kids to eat their vegetables through cooking and nutrition classes for low-income kids.
I find joy in watching a child eat broccoli for the first time--and fall in love with it. My heart dances when I see a student's eyes light up the first time they get to work in a real restaurant kitchen. My toes start tomato-tapping when a volunteer connects with a student and inspires them to taste a new vegetable. I twist and sprout when a community member becomes a new donor and invests in the future health of our children.
Nothing causes me to kick up my huckleberry heels more than doing this work together with my staff, volunteers and caring community members. That's worth celebrating!"
-Amber Stott
Credit | Madeloni Photography