Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation: Taste of the Nation New Haven

In the News

Taste of the Nation to Fight Hunger
WTNH- April 23, 2009

Share Our Strength's Emily Huebner speaks with WTNH's Chris Velardi from the Taste of the Nation- New Haven. Watch the news report here.

Taste this, America
by Jake Conway, Yale Daily News
Published: April 24, 2009

Even when our economy is malnourished, there are those who want to make sure everyone is fully fed. Last night at Taste of the Nation New Haven, nearly 400 people gathered at the Omni Hotel for a huge culinary gala to raise money to end childhood hunger. Read the story.

Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation New Haven is proud to, once again, welcome Matt Scott and Chris Velardi from NewsChannel 8 as our official emcees for the evening. Matt and Chris have been with us for a number of years and are great at keeping the party going ! Join us!!

Sharing Their Strength
by Sandi Kahn Shelton, New Haven Register
Published: April 6, 2009

When it comes to childhood hunger, Timothy Cipriano has a ringside seat. As the executive director of food services for New Haven Public Schools, and the guy known as "the local food dude," he sees kids who have to rely on the breakfast and lunches that schools serve because they may not get another meal at home. Read the story.

One in 10 Americans receiving Food Stamps
(Reuters) _ A record 32.2 million Americans were receiving food stamps in January 2009. The January figure marks the third time in five months that enrollment set a record. Read the story.

Taste of the Nation, New Haven Serves up Fantastic Offerings to Put an End to Childhood Hunger

by Timothy Cipriano

Over the past several years, Americans have gradually taken a much greater interest in what we feed our children and where this food comes from. As childhood obesity has developed into a national epidemic and concerns about tainted and unsafe food have created fear among American consumers, Connecticut residents can take solace in the fact that Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation in New Haven is doing something to address these issues.

This is my first year involved with this event and my reason is that the money raised goes towards ending childhood hunger in Connecticut. As a "Lunch Lady", my passion is feeding children and offering them access to delicious healthy meals with a local flavor. It seemed like a no brainer.

Since 2004, Share Our Strength has raised over $245 million and provided support for more than 1,000 nonprofits working to end hunger. Its grants have helped hundreds of organizations reach millions in meaningful ways: served 40.2 million meals to kids; established 926 new afterschool and summer feeding sites; taught 200,000 kids about healthy foods and food choices; grew 2.5 million pounds of produce in community gardens; referred nearly 2 million people to food and nutrition assistance programs.

Despite its devastating and highly visible consequences, childhood hunger is invisible. You can't see it just by looking, and you can't measure it in pounds, but it is among us: it affects black, white, Asian and Hispanic, short and tall, thin and chubby. School districts nationwide are experiencing a rapid increase in the number of families applying and qualifying for free and reduced meals. This year in New Haven we have seen a 10% increase in students qualifying for free and reduced priced meals. New Haven offers free breakfast and lunch, regardless of family income, to all its K-8 schools and large high schools.

In my role as the Executive Director for Food Services for New Haven Public Schools, and as a parent, I have seen first-hand the positive impact providing higher quality, locally grown food can have on our young people. In New Haven, as in other large urban areas, the food we serve in the schools may be the only food these children consume on a daily basis. It is disheartening to think that with all the fame and glamour attributed to chefs and the food industry in this country, that the children in our communities must continue to desperately seek it to keep nourished.

While there are many food and wine "tasting" events throughout the year, Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation is the only one of its kind where 100% of the ticket sale proceeds go directly to the fight to end childhood hunger, making an immediate impact right here in Connecticut. It brings together the finest chefs and restaurants, top corporations and individuals who take pride in seeing a situation and act to resolve it! This year, our goal is to raise a minimum of $50,000. Please plan to join Chef Jacques Pepin, me and all of the fantastic restaurants that will be participating on April 23rd to make this our best year ever. We realize that the current economy may make you think twice of attending, but this is the economy when our children need us the most. Poverty is complex - feeding a child is not.

Timothy Cipriano is Executive Director for Food Services for New Haven Public Schools and known as "Local Food Dude". For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit www.strength.org or contact Kathy O'Boyle, Event Chair, 203.430.6453.

Culinary Community Comes Together for Twentieth Annual Taste of the Nation

Event includes appearance and book signing by renowned celebrity chef and author, Jacques Pepin.

New Haven, CT, February 26, 2009 -Taste of the Nation, presented by American Express, returns to New Haven on Thursday, April 23, 2009 at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, 155 Temple Street, from 5:30-8pm in a concerted effort to end childhood hunger and make a difference in the greater New Haven community.

For the first time in its history, Taste of the Nation New Haven has partnered with the New Haven Public Schools Food Service and Yale University Dining. "As childhood obesity has developed into a national epidemic and concerns about tainted and unsafe food have created fear among American consumers, Connecticut residents can take solace in the fact that Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation in New Haven is doing something to address these issues," says Timothy Cipriano, event co-chair and Executive Director of New Haven Public Schools Food Service, known as the "Local Food Dude".

In addition to offering great food for every appetite and preference, as well as the opportunity to pick up some real bargains at the silent auction, the event will feature an appearance and book signing by celebrity chef and author, Jacques Pepin. VIP ticketholders will also find that they are in for a special treat, due to the generous contribution of Sally Scott Interior Design. A luxe area, with reserved seating, private bartender and more are on the designer's drawing table. VIP tickets are $125 per person and also include a private Champagne Reception with Chef Pepin.

In 2009, more than 12 million children in America will be hungry. That's one in six who are at risk of hunger, and who have limited or uncertain access to the nutritious foods they need to develop to their full potential. Each spring, the nation's hottest chefs and mixologists donate their time, considerable talent and finest creations at more than 55 Taste of the Nation events across the United States and Canada. Local beneficiaries include CitySeed, Connecticut Food Bank, Christian Community Action and advocacy group, End Hunger Connecticut.

"This event not only touches those that attend, but more importantly those who are in need and regularly take advantage of the support services provides by our beneficiaries," commented Kathy O'Boyle, the event chair, "Taste of the Nation New Haven produces a ripple effect."

General Admission tickets are $75 per person, and $125 VIP with reserved seating. For more information or to purchase tickets online, visit www.strength.org/newhaven.

Taste of the Nation is presented nationally by American Express, with national support from SYSCO Corporation, Food Network, Brown-Forman Corporation, S. Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water, and the National Pork Board. Since its inception 20 years ago, Taste of the Nation has raised more than $70 million. Funds raised in 2087 overr155 organizations in the United States, Canada and abroad. Beneficiaries in greater New Haven include Christian Community Action, the Connecticut Food Bank and advocacy group, End Hunger Connecticut. 100% of ticket sales stay in greater New Haven to help ensure no kid in America grows up hungry.

Hunger and Obesity Co-Exist, In New Haven and Elsewhere
by Kelly D. Brownell & Jennifer H. McTiernan
This editorial appeared in the New Haven Register on Feb 24, 2008.

On April 25 a group dedicated to ending hunger called Share Our Strength held a fundraising event for the Connecticut Food Bank and Christian Community Action at the Omni Hotel called Taste of the Nation, with noted chef Jacques Pepin as the Honorary Chef.

The two of us are honorary co-chairs of this event, which at first glance seems odd - one deals with the world's obesity problem and the other focuses on increasing access to local, healthy food as one way to prevent hunger right here in the New Haven area. But the startling fact is that obesity and hunger co-exist, within the same city, state, nation, and world, and even within a given family. How can this be and what might be done?

The world now produces more food than it needs enough even to feed a world population with expanding waistlines (every country in the world is showing increasing rates of obesity) and still there is a surplus. Yet hunger is a major problem; 10% of Americans live in "food insecure" homes (limited or uncertain access to needed food).

Where is the disconnect?

Hunger is not a problem of insufficient food, but rather one of distribution, which itself is complicated by complex political and economic issues. We can use New Haven as an example. People in many of the city's poor neighborhoods have access only to small food stores with a limited range of healthy foods and where, item for item, things cost more than in suburban supermarkets. One predictor of a family's diet quality is proximity to a full service supermarket. It is why the opening of the Shaw's supermarket on Whalley Avenue, made possible in part by progressive action of the city government, was so welcome, but this one store can only serve a small area of the city. It is also why neighborhood farmers' markets have been so successful in New Haven, because they too bring healthy food into neighborhoods where it is easier to find potato chips than a fresh apple.

Another sad fact is that healthy food costs more than unhealthy food, making fast food, packaged and processed snack foods, and beverages such as soft drinks a fact of life for the poor. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that typical price per quart is nearly $1 for orange juice, 75 cents for milk, and 32 cents for soft drinks. The same poverty that creates hunger drives people to high-calorie, nutrient poor foods, making obesity a likely outcome.

There may not always be a world abundance of food, so the situation is likely to grow worse. Vast amounts of fossil fuels are used to manufacture the fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers, hormones, and antibiotics that permit the mass production of food, not to mention its transportation. Modern agriculture subtracts more energy from the environment than it gives back in food and hence is not sustainable. With the world's population increasing so rapidly, there are very real worries about running out of food (and the water needed to grow it).

Another worry is how climate change will shift where food can be grown, which itself may affect the balance of world power. Vast amounts of wheat now grown in the U.S. may disappear -- experts project that in the next half century the American climate will warm to the point where nearly all wheat production must migrate north to Canada. The food environment is fascinating, complex, and insecure. For many families, the uncertainty of having enough healthy food is not abstract or off in the future but is part of the everyday struggle to survive. Hungry children cannot learn well in school, are vulnerable to serious health issues, and cannot have the energy thrive. It is why we co-chair this event and work together to bring healthy food to those in need. To attend the event or to contribute, go to http://www.TasteofTheNation.org/NewHaven

Kelly D. Brownell is Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University and in 2006 was named by Time Magazine as one of the World's 100 Most Influential People.
Jennifer McTiernan is Co-Founder and Executive Director of CitySeed and was named as the Register's Person of the Year in 2006.