Feeding the Future 2022

Shannon Reina

Food Service Manager, Salt River Schools

Shannon Reina is an enrolled member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Shannon began her career as a part time Cook aide and worked her way to Food Service Manager for Salt River Schools over the course of 14 years. Shannon is passionate about School Nutrition and incorporating more traditional Native American foods into School menus. Shannon believes that a healthy diet can help prevent the diseases that plague Native Communities and one way to do this is to return to the Native American diet of fresh vegetables, fruits, and grains. Shannon was also featured in this year's August Chef in the Garden featuring Salt River School's Soam Bavĭ Bowl.

Arnott Duncan

Owner-Farmer, Duncan Family Farms

Arnott Duncan is a 4th generation Arizona farmer who owns and operates Duncan Family Farms in Goodyear, Arizona. After receiving his degree in agronomy and plant genetics from the University of Arizona in 1982, Arnott returned to the Southwest Valley to work on his family’s cotton farm. In 1985 he decided to leave the family farm to establish his own farming operation. He began by growing cotton and a few hundred acres of conventionally grown fruits and vegetables in the Goodyear area.

Arnott married his wife, Kathleen in 1986 and by 1990 they were raising two sons and an increasing variety of fruits and vegetables on their farm. By 1994 the farm had expanded into organic production and today Duncan Family Farms grows year-round in Arizona, California, Oregon and New York.  All crops are certified organic and include kales, culinary herbs and organic baby lettuces for processors who provide bagged salads to the retail and food service industries. As his business has evolved, Arnott has managed to blend the best of traditional farming with the latest in agricultural technology. The establishment of a variety of innovative programs has led Duncan Family Farms to receive numerous awards and to become nationally recognized as a ‘showcase’ of progressive and environmentally sensitive farming techniques.

At Duncan Family Farms we believe that our primary responsibility is to produce clean, healthy, life-giving food. We are also committed to making a strong contribution to an improved environment and to giving back to our community. Today Duncan Family Farms grows year-round in Arizona, California, Oregon and New York. All crops are certified organic and include kales, culinary herbs and organic baby lettuces for processors who provide bagged salads to the retail and food service industries

Ryan Kennedy

Regional Chef, Brigaid

Ryan grew up in Southeastern Connecticut and worked for almost 20 years in restaurants on Connecticut’s shoreline. In 2016, he joined Brigaid, led by former Noma chef Dan Giusti, to remake the public school food experience in New London, Connecticut. From 2016 to 2018, Ryan served as Head Chef of New London High School, a universal free lunch-eligible school where he and the team prepared 1,300 meals from scratch each day. In 2019, he was promoted to the role of New London District Chef, and, in partnership with NLPS’ food service director, led the six schools scratch cooking transition and long-term financial sustainability. At the start of the 2020-2021 school year, after training his district chef successor, Ryan transitioned to a broader role, spearheading Brigaid school training partnerships in Richmond, Virginia, Long Island, New York, and Denver, Colorado. He also helped launch Brigaid’s expansion into the senior meal space through a partnership with Encore Community Services in the midtown Times Square/Clinton communities of New York City.

Ryan works tirelessly to give school meals the resources and attention they deserve, especially given their potent influence on students’ daily lives, educational outcomes, and future health, and to train every newly hired Brigaid chef on how to translate this vision to reality.

Chef Lenard Rubin

C-CAP

During the past 40 years Lenard has held Executive Chef, Food & Beverage Director, Executive Sous Chef and Chef de Cuisine positions in many World–Class restaurants, hotels, resorts and clubs. Lenard is very proud of the fact that he has mentored 100’s of young culinarians that have gone on to win competitions and had successful careers in the foodservice industry. He has also been a mentor and judge for Careers through Culinary Arts (C-CAP) for nearly 30 years. Lenard is also very fortunate to have had the opportunity, by way of his chosen profession, to help raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, for well deserving charities throughout his career and for 10 years has humbly volunteered to cook, as the guest Chef for the opening night dinner at Phoenix Children’s Hospital Camp Rainbow, a week-long summer camp for children with Cancer. In 2018 he traveled to Myanmar with World Chefs Without Borders participating with 59 Chefs from around the World as part of a Chefs Social Responsibility mission to serve over 10,000 underserved people, many of them orphans.

Ms. Alex Mendenez

Ms. Mendenez is a Community Pre-K Teacher serving in her third year at Longview Elementary School of Osborn School District. Ms. Alex is also the 21-st Century site coordinator in Longview's after school care program. Ms. Alex joined the District as a FoodCorpsAZ service member, who specializes in local food and nutrition education with emphasis on garden-based experiences. With her expertise in engaging young children, Blue Watermelon Project is excited to have Ms. Alex with us at Feeding the Future 2022 event co-facilitating the mindfulness eating activity hosted the Kid's Corner with Chef Chris Lenza.

Chef Chris Lenza

Chris Lenza has been working professionally in the culinary arts for more than 25 years. Chris discovered his love of food growing up in a family that valued food in its many forms; one of his grandfathers was a chef, and the other an urban farmer. Thanks in part to the wisdom they shared, Chris learned from an early age the importance of knowing both how food is grown and how to create delicious dishes from what is harvested. These early influences fueled his passion to help others eat healthier and deliciously.

Currently, Chris custom designs meals for the health and well-being of clients. He helps develop personalized meal plans for clients looking to improve their health with nutritious whole foods. He also teaches cooking classes to adults and kids. He lives in Arizona with his wife and two kids. In addition to spending time with family and friends, Chris enjoys tending to his home garden, supporting local farms and businesses, practicing mindfulness, powerlifting and working on publishing a cookbook.

Special Thank You to Feeding the Future Contest Coordinator!

Sarah Martinelli, MS, RD, SNS

Sarah Martinelli is a professor at ASU in the College of Health Solutions. She is a registered dietitian whose focus is on food access through child nutrition programs like the National School Lunch Program