Capital Area Food Bank
Hunger Summit

Andy Shallal

Morning Keynote

Anas “Andy” Shallal is an artist and social entrepreneur.  He is the founder of Busboys and Poets and Eatonville Restaurant.  Both restaurant concepts create an environment where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted.  Spaces to feed the mind, body and soul and where art, culture and politics take center stage.  With 6 locations in the Washington Metropolitan Area, Busboys and Poets has become home for progressives, artists and intellectuals.  By Spring of 2016, Busboys and Poets will be open in Historic Anacostia in Ward 8 with a state of the art culinary and leadership academy and a full service Busboys and Poets restaurant, bar and bookstore as well as performance space for poetry, music and political and social conversations and salons.

Shallal’s businesses adhere to sustainable business practices becoming a leader in food sourcing, employment practices and environmental stewardship.  He has received numerous awards including the Mayor’s Arts Award, Employer of the Year from the Employment Justice Center and the Mayor’s Environmental Award.

Erine Gray, Aunt Bertha

Afternoon Keynote

Erine is the founder of Aunt Bertha, a Public Benefit Corporation that focuses on making human services information accessible to people and programs in the United States. Erine's been working at the intersection of public policy and social services delivery since 2002 and lives in Austin, TX.

Amy Bachman, DC Central Kitchen

Workshop, Food Trends: What's Old is New

Amy Bachman works as the Procurement and Sustainability Manger for DC Central Kitchen, a hunger and empowerment non-profit. Amy handles all incoming product to DC Central Kitchen including managing food recovery and sourcing local food for DCCK’s farm to school program.  Additionally she runs their weekly gleaning program with local farms in the harvest months.

Amy graduated from Wake Forest University in 2010 with a Bachelor in History and Minor in International Studies. Amy served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Campus Kitchens Project at Johns Hopkins University and then worked as the Volunteer and Donation Coordinator at the Franciscan Center in Baltimore before joining DC Central Kitchen in 2012.  Amy is passionate about improving the food system and ensuring all people have access the healthy food. She is currently working towards a certificate in Sustainable Food and Agriculture Systems through the Tufts Freidman School of Nutrition.  Amy is also a current board member of ECO City Farms, an educational non-profit with a mission to promote sustainable urban farming.

Christopher King, PHD, Georgetown University

Workshop, Announcing Partners for Wellness

As Associate Director of Georgetown’s Master’s Program in Health Systems Administration and Director of Experiential Learning and Professional Development, Christopher supports operational management of the program. He also manages the student experiential learning process by developing and sustaining strategic partnerships with local and national health services organizations.

Prior to joining Georgetown University, Christopher served as the first Assistant Vice President of Community Health for MedStar Health, a $4.6B not-for-profit healthcare system comprised of 10 not-for-profit hospitals in the Baltimore/Washington region. Accomplishments included planning, launching and managing a new corporate function designed to apply more rigor and evidence in community-based planning, implementation and evaluation. He was also responsible for developing, testing and evaluating innovative approaches to bridge the gap between medical care and public health.

Georgi Hall, Columbia Baptist Church

Workshop, Connecting Generations through Food Growing

Georgi Hall Has been a member of Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church for 31 years.  She helped start two church gardens during the spring of 2010 for the purpose of “demonstrating to Columbia’s food pantry clients how to grow fresh vegetables and herbs on their own to supplement the grocery items they receive from the pantry” and to supply their food pantry with limited herbs and vegetables for distribution.  Two additional gardens were started in 2011.  She has also organized and leads gardening, nutrition and cooking classes for the food pantry clients and community. 

Jordan Anthony-Brown, Food Writer/Blogger, Line Cook

Workshop, My Life in Food: Stories from the Kitchen

 Jordan Anthony-Brown currently works as a line cook in Washington, D.C., while moonlighting as contributing food writer to publications such as EdibleDC and DCist.  He also runs a blog entitled Rouxminations that focuses on food, cooking, and the many ways that both impact our lives. 

Jordan graduated from Wake Forest University in 2009 with a Bachelor in History and Minor in Political Science, and a year later left the university with a Masters in Business Management from Wake Forest Graduate School of Business.  He is highly interested in the concepts of organic food and food sustainability, and is a strong believer in the importance of basic and fundamental scratch-cooking skills.

Carrie Vaughn, Clagett Farm

Workshop, Connecting Generations through Food Growing

Carrie is the Vegetable Production Manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation at their farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.  The vegetable operation raises about 100,000 pounds of produce, annually, and gives at least 40% of that to social service agencies.  Under her guidance, the farm also developed the “workshare” program, where any member of the public can work on the farm in exchange for produce. 

Over the last 15 years, she has mentored many budding new farmers, and Carrie is on the board of Future Harvest-Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture.

Patrilie Hernandez, DC Hunger Solutions

Workshop, My Life in Food: Stories from the Kitchen

Patrilie Hernandez has followed her passion for food and nutrition for over a decade, a passion that has led to her current position as the Child Nutrition Program Associate at DC Hunger Solutions. Her career has seen her from being a professional cook at fine dining restaurants to managing nutrition programs to public education and advocacy to end childhood hunger. Patrilie’s background gives her a unique understanding of food not only as nutrition, but also as a key part of culture and human connection. Her ardent belief in healthy food access for all led to her volunteering to coordinate several projects in food deserts, including programs focused on multicultural nutrition education and community gardens. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Patrilie completed a year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Bay Area Food Bank in Alabama, where she embraced the opportunity to see feeding programs at work and became even more passionate about eradicating hunger in underserved communities. Currently, Patrilie is pursuing a Masters of Science in Nutrition Education at American University and anticipates to complete her degree in 2016.