Champions of Change

Champions of Change Blog

  • Champions of Change: Chefs Move to Schools

    Posted by Garrett Berdan, RD on April 27, 2011 at 2:57 PM EDT

    Editor’s Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and help our country rise to the many challenges of the 21st century.

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    It is an honor to be named a Champion of Change by the White House for my work with school nutrition programs in the Pacific Northwest.  Last Friday I joined a roundtable meeting with Administration officials and five other chefs from around the nation to discuss best practices for working with schools and teachers through the Chefs Move to Schools program. 

    We have an extraordinary opportunity in this country to influence a lifetime of healthy eating habits beginning with children and teens.  Schools provide a perfect setting, both in the classroom and in the cafeteria.  Chef volunteers with Chefs Move to Schools are ready to share their expertise to get kids excited about tasty, healthy foods. 

    In the classroom chefs can teach students through demonstration or hands-on cooking experiences.  It could be something as simple as seasonal produce show-tell-and-taste, or a hands-on activity to build cooking confidence.  Chefs in the classroom can also collaborate with the cafeteria to promote new healthy school menu items. 

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  • Champions of Change: Winning the Race to Educate Our Kids

    Posted by Nikki Sutton on April 21, 2011 at 5:27 PM EDT

    Last week, as part of the Champions of Change series, highlighting people making a difference, parents who are impacting their communities through their involvement in education came to a roundtable at the White House. During the roundtable they shared their experiences and ideas on strengthening our schools.

    Some of the participants were also delegates to Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress's Education and Learning conference earlier that week. Catherine McManus from Parenting Magazine shares her experience:

    After spending four days with some of the most passionate voices for improving our nation’s schools at Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress on Education and Learning conference, it seemed a fitting conclusion to our time together in Washington, D.C. to culminate the experience with a roundtable discussion at The White House among the true “Champions of Change” fighting for better educational opportunities for our nation’s children: their parents.

    U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in his confirmation hearings that education is the “civil rights issue of our generation.”  Parenting has had the honor of gathering outstanding mom education advocates from all over the country to exchange ideas with Secretary Duncan on how to most effectively work towards his goals for improving our country’s school system at the Mom Congress conference, and this year’s event left attendees inspired by his words: “Children don’t vote. They don’t have lobbyists. They don’t have unions. You’ve got to be that voice.”

    Each of those all-important voices at the White House roundtable – whether from one of our amazing Mom Congress delegates or a local PTA leader working towards improving DC-area schools – proved that the most powerful movement in education reform can start with one mom raising her hand and speaking up about what’s best for her child. 

    Learn more about the parents that lent their expertise to the Champions of Change roundtable on education and listen to their tips on how you can get involved in winning the race to educate our kids. If you know someone who is doing extraordinary things to make a difference in your community, nominate them to be a Champion of Change.

    Learn more about Education, Women, Working Families

  • Building a Greener Tomorrow

    Posted by Kimberly Lewis on April 15, 2011 at 5:04 PM EDT

    I will never forget the tremendous opportunity and privilege afforded to me last week as I was invited to be part of the Champions of Change roundtable – not just because it was a thrill to be at the White House as part of a national celebration of every individual’s ability to drive meaningful, positive change, but because of the deep honor of representing my brothers and sisters in the green building movement.

    Every year, at the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, the passionate thinkers and doers who make up the green building community gather for what I think of as our tent revival. You’ve never seen an industry conference so fundamentally based on passion for doing what’s right – what’s right for our environment, for our underserved communities, for our global economy, and for our children and their children. Green building is good business – because it’s not business as usual. I’m so delighted that the President and his Administration recognize the green building community as the agents of change they are.

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  • Window to An Energy Efficient Future

    Posted by Chris Simpson on April 15, 2011 at 1:55 PM EDT

    Last Friday I was able to represent the more than 8,000 team-members of Pella Windows and Doors, at a stimulating roundtable exchange as part of the White House’s Champion of Change series. The session featured a sharing of accomplishments and ideas focused on improving America’s energy position. Despite the potential threat of a government shutdown, the session was led by Michelle Moore, the Federal Environmental Executive, Council of Environmental Quality, and attended by several high-ranking leaders of various government agencies concerned about sustainability and clean energy.

    As an industry leader in sustainability and innovation, Pella was selected to participate in large part because of our significant efforts in investing in technology and bringing highly energy efficient windows and doors to the residential and commercial markets. Pella is proud to be an ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence winner the past three years and also an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year each of the past five years; a feat unmatched in our industry.

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  • Training Workers of Today for the Clean Energy Jobs of Tomorrow

    Posted by Jon Boggiano on April 14, 2011 at 4:54 PM EDT

    This past Friday, I attended the White House Champions of Change roundtable. This roundtable impressed upon me breadth and vitality of the growing clean energy/energy efficient economy. In attendance were local government and private sector business leaders (the Champions of Change) as well as White House and Department of Energy officials (also Champions of Change). I enjoyed hearing participants share their accomplishments which included retooling a decades old manufacturer, implementing local government sustainability projects, and developing a thriving home energy retrofit business.

    I shared the success that we have had at Everblue by training tens of thousands of students from small businesses through Fortune 500 companies. I firmly believe that quality education and clean energy are both essential American security issues. As a veteran owned business, our focus is on providing practical and valuable education that helps grow America’s sustainable workforce. Many of our students have gone from unemployed to employed, successfully started small businesses and grown existing ones, changed careers, developed new products, and implemented large scale corporate social responsibility programs. Every day, we see the private sectors commitment to sustainability and I was excited to hear how the administration plans to leverage the private sector as a partner to rapidly grow America’s green economy.

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  • Champions of Change: Harnessing the Power of Community and Clean Energy

    Posted by Will Byrne on April 13, 2011 at 11:50 AM EDT

    This past Friday, I was honored with a Champions of Change award, allowing me to join a conversation between Administration officials and community leaders from around the country to discuss new solutions we are implementing toward a new clean energy economy.

    As I heard from the incredible pioneers around me, two things were resoundingly clear:

    First, the clean energy economy has extraordinary potential to bring new opportunity and prosperity to America. Second, this new wave of innovation, just as the major economic transformations the United States of the past, is going to be driven by the home-grown ingenuity and entrepreneurship of our local communities.

    The organization I helped to found a few years ago, The DC Project, was built to realize this vision of a bottom up transformation of the clean economy. By working alongside communities to make sensible energy choices, we help everyday people to improve their own lives while also ramping up demand for clean energy services.  Harnessing the power of community in this way, we not only unlock the local clean energy marketplace, but also ensure that its benefits, especially new jobs, are tied to the community.

    Here in DC we’ve applied this model around building energy retrofits through our WeatherizeDC program, and we’ve seen an incredible transformation - creating living-wage jobs for local residents, sweeping energy savings, and local green business growth.

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    Learn more about Energy and Environment