Executive Committee of the Board

Following back-to-back careers in architecture, hospitality and journalism, Gracie learned about the childhood obesity epidemic, which motivated her to create Recipe for Success Foundation in 2005 to change the way children understand, appreciate and eat their food.

Entering its second decade with 50,000+ children taught, Recipe for Success is the largest initiative of its kind in the country and Gracie has received numerous national awards for her work. Our signature Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ program, is available in schools nationwide and public service campaigns: the VegOut! Challenge and farmers marKIDS days, designed to raise awareness, normalize healthy eating and drive behavior change, have players across the country. Gracie’s children’s book, “Eat It! Food Adventures with Marco Polo” published in 2012, has snared a dozen national awards.

Hope Farms has been a dream of Gracie’s since before she launched the foundation and if she had her way, that’s where she would spend all day every day. You see her hand in the layout, buildings and garden designs and maybe even the crop plan. You will find her arranging flowers and setting the table for every event and collaborating with our whole team every day.

Genevieve is president of Banloch, LLC, a firm specializing in business process redevelopment and technology innovation within the healthcare, government and retail industries. Her interest in food and its production started as a child helping out at her great uncle’s produce farm near her hometown in Ohio where she enjoyed waking up before the sun to help prepare and deliver fresh produce to local area farmer’s markets. This experience left a lasting appreciation of the dedication and pride demonstrated by local farmers to produce and deliver high quality food to their neighbors and beyond. Today, Genevieve is an eager supporter of Hope Farms and our work to shorten the distance food takes from field to plate for more Houstonians. She regularly lures her entire family to the farm to volunteer and eat.

San Antonio native and Trinity University graduate, Nico is a numbers whiz working with Price Waterhouse Coopers for over 11 years in Accounting Services and Audit. You will often find her volunteering with her PWC posse at Hope Farms, building things and keeping us straight. As our Board Treasurer, she keeps an eye on our books and cash flow and makes sure we stay in budget. We do notice that she hangs out a lot when we are harvesting Brussels Sprouts.

Amy grew up sitting on the kitchen counter watching her mom cook, gave dinner parties in high school, cooked for all her roommates in college, and now has three boys who never stop eating. A long-time advocate for delicious home cooking, she won the Saveur magazine Italian recipe contest in early 2000. Amy is passionate about local food, and is a founding board member of Recipe for Success Foundation and the founder of aaCooks, a Houston-based cooking forum and class series along with Kitchen Underground, a site that showcases one-of-a-kind cooking classes, taught by passionate local cooks in intimate, authentic spaces in our community.  You will often Amy at the farm giving free Cook The Harvest classes for our neighbors.

Paula, as the Community Involvement Lead and executive sponsor for Cigna wellness initiatives, Paula is involved in improving the health of the community at large by developing and promoting collaboration between businesses and local health organizations as well as client specific initiatives. Her commitment to health and well-being is apparent in her continuous involvement in health-conscious community programs. With Paula’s advocacy and Cigna’s financial support, we have launched the S.P.I.C.E. Guild and been able to offer free Hope Farms field trips to over 1,000 Houston kids. She says her blood pressure drops 10 points when she arrives at Hope Farms.