What’s Different About This Picture?

               If a picture is worth a thousand words this one is yet another example of how Share Our Strength has and continues to transform the restaurant industry and larger culinary world in the service of our No Kid Hungry campaign.

             

  I took the photo Saturday night in the kitchen of one of our favorite restaurants called Earth at Hidden Pond in Kennebunkport, Maine.  Chef Justin Walker will be riding Chefs Cycle this year for the third time. He opened his restaurant Saturday, a few weeks before the season begins, for this special event to raise money for his ride.  It was completely sold out and earlier in the day we saw his wife Danielle in town driving a pick-up truck around town picking up extra chairs so they could squeeze in a few more guests.

            “I spend so much time on my bike because I know it is helping to feed more kids,” Justin told the guests. Maine’s long frigid winters mean a short training season for the May 16-18 ride in California. So Justin keeps two bikes and a trainer in the kitchen on which he can mount his bike while supervising his team and sometimes even prepping food himself. A Chef Cycle rider’s gotta do what a Chefs Cycle rider’s gotta do.

            Justin will be one of nearly 250 chefs riding this May in Santa Rosa.  Next year there will no doubt be closer to 400 riders.  Already Chefs Cycle has attracted thousands of new first-time donors.  Bringing a larger audience to our work is one of our key strategic imperatives. It’s the way movements grow, pictures change, and social progress advances.  Not always as quickly as we’d like, but as unmistakably as a kitchen that once contained pots, pans, sinks, trays and now houses a couple of world class road bikes.

Back In The Saddle Again

           I’m training for my third annual 300 mile Chefs Cycle bike ride of the last three years – joined by more than 250 other riders this time.

 

            This year’s ride, from May 16-18,  aims to raise $2 million for our No Kid Hungry campaign, compared to the $1 million raised last year.  Here’s why I hope you’ll consider supporting my ride:

It is a commitment that entails months of hard work and almost a year of anxiety. The first year I rode to show the flag and convince others that if I could do it, anyone could.  It was so much fun that I rode again last year.  But this year it is because the goal is such an important one for expanding our No Kid Hungry campaign. So it is all hands on deck, all legs peddling, even the old ones.  The $2 million raised will means millions more school breakfasts and summer meals, giving kids a better chance to succeed at school than they’ve had before. 

All of us are learning anew that we are capable or more than we imagined. It’s true for each rider, for our entire organization, and for you too.  The great thing is that the ride has taken on a life of its own with literally thousands of new first time donors and supporters committed to the success of our No Kid Hungry campaign. I’m more confident than ever that we will succeed.