It was an inspiring evening
! Over 200 people gathered Wednesday night for Root's Third Annual Celebration. We are so proud of our graduates Cassandra and Nicky for sharing their Root experiences with the crowd and all of Root alumni who joined us to share recipes, greet guests and talk about our program.
Mayor Driscoll presented the 2018 Root Community Leadership Award to Deborah Jeffers in recognition of her support of Root's youth workforce development program. In addition to all that she has done to support Root, Deb embodies our mission through her career trajectory in food services and her work to provide healthy food to thousands of young people in Salem each day.
A special thank you to our partners
,
Woodman's of Essex
and
The Salem Cheese
Shop
, for working with our alumni Jayla and and Henrique to create their delicious recipes for the event. We hope you got a chance to stop by their tables to say hello and sample a bite!
Below is a quote from Cassandra's speech, we hope you find it as inspiring as we do. Thank you to all of our friends, community and restaurant partners, and supporters. Together we are feeding opportunity and community and making a difference in the lives of young people in Essex County.
"The Root program has been one of the best experiences of my life, it gave me the ability I needed to grow and improve. It was a lot of hard work, and new situations, but you can’t improve in life if you don’t get out of your comfort zone. The Root program has given me the skills I need in life whether I end up working in the culinary field or not. I learned that what I am good at is working with people, and the Root program has taught me how to use these skills more effectively." -
Cassandra B., 2018 Root graduate
Photo Credit: Alyse Gause Photography
