Celeb Chef Jeff Henderson Headlines Food Bank’s 30th Anniversary
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Food Network star "Chef Jeff" Henderson will come to town to help the RI Food Bank celebrate it's 30th.
Extreme poverty, hard times and a few bad choices landed Jeff Henderson in prison for nearly a decade. While incarcerated, Henderson – now known as “Chef Jeff” in Hollywood circles – discovered a passion for cooking and helping others that enabled him to rise above his past. He will share his inspiring story as keynote speaker at the Food Bank’s special event next month.
Chef Jeff: a story that rings true in RI
“Chef Jeff’s story reminds us that people can climb out of hard times if they’re given a hand up,” said Food Bank Chief Executive Officer Andrew Schiff. “He may have grown up in South Central Los Angeles, but his story rings true here in Rhode Island, where the recession has failed to loosen its grip on the most vulnerable members of our community.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHenderson went on to become the first African-American chef at the prestigious Café Bellagio in Las Vegas. His life story has been featured on Oprah’s Life Class, The Today Show and CNN. He hosted the popular Food Network show, The Chef Jeff Project, where he put six at-risk youth to work in his catering business to help turn their lives around. His memoir, Cooked: My Journey from the Streets to the Stove, was a New York Times best-seller.
30 years of helping Rhode Islanders
The 30th Anniversary Luncheon will honor the individuals, organizations, businesses and community groups that have made it possible for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank to provide emergency food assistance to Rhode Islanders for 30 years. Founded in 1982, the Food Bank now serves more than 60,000 people through its statewide network of emergency food programs. A third of the people served are children under the age of 18.
The need for food assistance in the state has grown by 58% since the start of the recession, while the amount of food donations has decreased. Increasingly, the Food Bank must rely on charitable donations to acquire healthy foods that enable families to put a balanced meal on the table. In the last year, the Food Bank distributed 9.4 million pounds of food, of which nearly 2 million pounds was fresh produce.
In addition to food distribution, the Food Bank also operates several programs that help create long-term solutions to the problem of hunger, including the Community Kitchen, a culinary job-training program offered free of charge to low-income adults.
Community Kitchen alums spotlighted
Among the attendees at the Food Bank’s 30th Anniversary Luncheon will be dozens of graduates of the Food Bank’s Community Kitchen program. Many of these graduates identify directly with Chef Jeff’s story and have turned their own lives around through culinary training. The students in this intensive 14-week program spend each day preparing more than 400 meals for the children served by the Food Bank’s Kids Cafe program, which provides after-school dinner to children who might not otherwise have an evening meal.
The Food Bank’s 30th Anniversary Luncheon is made possible by a broad base of corporate and community supporters, including signature sponsor Stop & Shop. Citizens Bank sponsored Chef Jeff’s participation in the event.
Tickets are available for $100/person at www.rifoodbank.org/
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