Share Our Strength inducts chef-educator into Operation Frontline hall of fame

At its 25th anniversary Leadership Awards Ceremony, Share Our Strength presented its 2009 Leadership Awards to chefs, restaurants, restaurateurs, community volunteers and corporate executives who have made a significant impact on the fight to end childhood hunger in the United States. Among them were Share Our Strength's Operation Frontline 2009 Hall of Fame inductees, volunteer instructors who have taught 15 or more cooking-based nutrition courses with Operation Frontline programs around the country.

This year's Hall of Fame inductees included a chef-educator who also runs her own catering business and chairs a United Nations committee: Eva Forson, owner of African Palava in New York City.

Upon moving to the United States from Ghana some 20 years ago, Forson earned certificates in professional catering and baking from the culinary arts division of the New School University in New York City. For the past 20 years, she has used those credentials and her own childhood experience cooking with her mother in Ghana to teach classes at the Institute of Culinary Education and the culinary arts division of The New School. Forson added to her course load in 2001 when she started teaching Operation Frontline courses at City Harvest in New York City. Forson also serves as chairperson of the food committee of the United Nations African Mothers' Association.

For more information about Share Our Strength, its work to end childhood hunger by 2015 or any of its programs, visit www.strength.org.

(l to r) Operation Frontline Hall of Fame winners: Jean Bowen, owner, Cuisine by Jean, Boulder, Colo.; Eva Forson, chef-instructor, the Institute of Culinary Education and the Culinary Arts Division of The New School, New York City, and owner, African Palava; Marilyn Matusch, retired educator, Portland, Ore.; Morris Salerno, chef-owner, Salerno's Restaurant, Flower Mound, and The Grotto, Highland Village, Texas; Kori Reed, ConAgra Foods Foundation, the national sponsor of Share Our Strength's Operation Frontline