Meet Ed Groark

Ed Groark is Martha's Table's Sears Chef Challenge participant. He chose Martha's Table as the charity he would like to support for the Sears Chef Challenge. I asked Ed why he chose Martha's Table. View Ed Groark Sears page here.

Why I am drawn to Martha’s Table

My experiences with Martha’s Table go back many years to when I escorted groups of suburban school kids to work in the food preparation area where they performed the magic of turning donated food into meals for low-income and homeless families and individuals. I’ve always been so impressed by how Martha’s Table is able to do so much with so little. They do this with the help of 10,000 volunteers each year through their never-ending commitment to continually find new sources of donated food and to stay open 365 days a year.

When I was selected as one of 24 chefs in the U.S. by Sears to compete in their ‘best chef’ Sears Chef Challenge competition and I learned we could win cash awards for a food charity of our choice, I knew there was only one organization I wanted to compete for. In the first elimination round going on now, I have the opportunity to win $5,000 for Martha’s Table, and if I go all the way to the top, I can win as much as $20,000 for Martha’s Table. Wouldn’t you like to help me and help Martha’s Table?

My involvement with Martha’s Table has another dimension as well. This month Michelle Obama kicked off her ‘Chefs Move to Schools’ program asking chefs to adopt a school to go into their classrooms to talk to children about healthy eating and making good food choices. I am one of 1,000 chefs who signed up, and of course my adopted school is Martha’s Table, where there are over 300 children from pre-school through high school who receive at least one meal a day. I will be working with the Martha’s Table team (who know a great deal about healthy eating) to develop a program that teaches kids where food comes from, what healthy foods they didn’t know they liked, and how to make healthy snacks for themselves. I can’t wait share my skills and experiences with these promising young children. It’s a win – win all around.

Sears Chef Challenge

ABOUT THE SEARS CHALLENGE

4 Cities. 24 Chefs. 300 Million Americans. One Deserving Charity.

The Sears Chef Challenge aims to find the nation's next up and coming chef while raising money for the nation's food banks (Martha's Table!). And we need YOUR help to find America's next great chef.

A total of 24 chefs in four cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C will compete by completing a variety of culinary challenges, culminating in the Sears Chef Challenge Championship Finals at the Kenmore Live Studio in Chicago. The chefs who progress toward the crucial semi-final stage will be decided by YOU, the online voters.

In addition, each chef will be paired with a food bank or food related charity in their home cities and given the opportunity to raise money for their communities.

Each chef will complete his or her challenge at special live events at Sears stores in their home towns; each chef will post their challenge videos, recipes, and more to the Chef Challenge site as well as their respective Facebook and Twitter pages to help you decide which chef you'd like to see in the Semi-Finals. (See Martha's Table Chef, Ed Groark at the link below).

The competition will consist of two rounds, each with a quarter-final and semi-final stage.

Round 1 voting begins JUNE 26th

Meet our participating chef online at ED GROARK, and then vote online starting JUNE 26th. The chef with the most votes from each city wins $5,000 for their chosen food pantry or food related charity and moves on to the live semi-finals in Chicago!

Ed Groark's Sears Chef Challenge Page

Martha’s Table Daycare Achieves National Accreditation

We are proud to announce that Martha’s Table just received word from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) granting accreditation status to our Child Development Center. Added to our existing national accreditation for our school-age programs, we are very excited to receive this confirmation of the high quality continuum of care we are providing to our children and their families. Especially because of the many challenges our children and families face, we believe they deserve the best. In addition, accreditation will bring additional opportunities to our daycare and will help us sustain this excellence.

Achieving accreditation has been a four-year, organization-wide effort that has required dedication and hard work from all of Martha’s Table. Please join me in congratulating the staff at Martha’s Table, especially Simone Johnson, Director of the Child Development Center and her staff, for what their efforts have produced. The Daycare staff in particular had to make significant personal commitments to this goal. For many of them, it

meant a return to college or going to college for the first time to achieve the requisite expertise to teach in an accredited dayc

are. I also have been incredibly impressed by the teamwork and willingness to pitch in displayed by all the other departments at Martha’s Table.

Martha’s Table could not have done this without a tremendous amount of support from the community. Volunteers, donors, partner agencies, and the families we serve all worked together to make accreditation possible. On behalf of all of us at Martha’s Table, we thank you.

Lindsey Buss, President & CEO