When Oprah asks you what you want for your birthday, you have to think big. Her former personal chef, Art Smith, didn’t think big enough for the talk show hosts tastes when he told her he wanted a treadmill for his fiftieth birthday. When she told him to “aim higher” Art Smith could only think of one thing – much needed extra funding for his nonprofit, Common Threads. Common Threads focuses on healthy eating education for children, exactly the kind of program that another of Art’s clients, Michelle Obama, has been calling for recently. So she donated $250,000 to the cause.
“We’re going to educate a lot of children about taking care of themselves,” Smith said during an interview on Friday at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. ”I’d like to take this money to create healthy programs for children that mirror the first lady’s program,” said Smith.
In early February Michelle Obama announced the “Let’s Move” campaign, which will work to educate children on healthy eating and get better food into school lunch programs. Smith’s program is already doing something similar. Common Threads runs more than twenty after school programs across the nation – their classes teach kids how to cook healthy, interesting food pulling recipes from a diverse range of ethnic traditions.
The First Lady’s policies aren’t Smith’s only inspiration to help children learn to eat healthy – Smith himself has recently lost ninety pounds by changing his own eating habits. He wants to help kids learn to eat right at an early age.
“What an amazing birthday present that I can share with so many friends,” Smith said of Oprah’s generous gift.
