Liza is passionate about food, gardening and cooking. Prior to having children she cooked in Italy and at Boston's finest restaurants. Today, cooking and celebrating food with her children is an essential part of everyday life. As an active volunteer in the community she has managed the creation of two International Cookbooks, fundraisers for her children's elementary school, as well as volunteering at the Lexington Farmers Market for the past 7 years. Here, her contributions include providing her own recipes using local produce for the market website, and bringing new farmers and vendors to the market. Liza has taught inner-city children cooking at Passim, in Cambridge, in conjunction with their multi-cultural arts programs. A volunteer for Share Our Strength, she taught for the Frontline Program for several years. Liza is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she studied Psychology, as well as a graduate of Cambridge of Culinary Arts where she graduated at the top of her class.

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As co-Founder of the Lexington Farmers’ Market, Lori is responsible for overseeing all daily operations of the market and its 60 volunteers. She has been teaching cooking classes to children aged 7-13 for several years in after-school programs in Lexington and surrounding towns. The classes stress real cooking and hands-on recipes. Emphasizing the importance of local food and food as a social experience, Lori teaches that choices can impact our environment. Lori is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a B.A. in English, and The New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, a 2 year Culinary Arts School. She owned and operated Sweet Deliverance Catering in Winchester, MA. for 5 years, and co-owner of Noodles Cafe. She and her husband are currently co-owners of Dave’s Fresh Pasta Shop in Somerville, MA. Lori has two grown children, and over 22 years experience working in the restaurant business. Contact Lori via email:  lori@kidscookinggreen.com

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Sonia is a co-founder, and former manager of the Lexington Farmers' Market. She has a Masters Degree in Environmental Management with an emphasis on food production. Sonia has a sincere interest in food, cooking and health, and enjoys preparing delicious and healthful meals for her family. She has taken cooking classes in London, Norfolk, and Charleston, as well as teaching cooking classes in the Boston area to enthusiasts of all ages. Sonia is devoted to educating students about preserving the health of our environment through food. She joined Kids Cooking Green in 2010, and has been delighting our students with her knowledge and down to earth teaching style ever since.

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Ellen’s passion for cooking, sustainable food production and healthy eating choices has lead her into a new career, following her work as a founder of a healthcare communications agency. A graduate of Syracuse University and Boston University’s Culinary Arts Program, Ellen has been teaching cooking at Weston’s Land’s Sake Organic Farm and the Weston Council on Aging for the past 5 years. She joined Kids Cooking Green in 2010. Ellen brings knowledge of sustainable food practices and farming to the Kids Cooking Green programs, from her work at Land’s Sake Organic Farm. She helped launch the very successful Green Power Cooking Classes as part of the Land’s Sake summer camp program for middle and high school students. In addition to teaching, Ellen is a personal chef. The mother of three daughters, Ellen has raised her girls to have a passion for great food and healthy eating plus a love of cooking for their family and friends.

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Amy is thrilled to be part of the Kids Cooking Green team. Amy’s love for cooking and food began early as she spent many a weekend watching and snacking in the professional kitchens where her mother worked. Always an avid home cook, Amy took advantage of a layoff from the nonprofit sector in 2010 to attend cooking school, and graduated from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in 2011. She writes a food blog on Arlington Patch and has been teaching cooking for adults and children through Cooking Matters. Amy lives in East Arlington and has two children who love to help cook.

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Elsa Carvalho was born in Angola, Africa. She is of Portuguese origin, but moved to Canada when she was 7 and grew up, studied and got married in Winnipeg, Canada. She then moved with her husband to MA for further training and decided to stay in New England. She has three children, twins that are now 12 and a 10 year old. Elsa is a French teacher by profession, and has taught French and Science at a girl’s private school in Winnipeg and French and social studies in Boston Public School for almost 10 years. She is now home with her children, and really enjoys cooking with her family. She grew around her her mother’s Portuguese cooking, and therefore is influenced by Portuguese/Mediterranean cuisine. Her husband is Brazilian, so she also mixes in South American cooking when she can. She tries as much as possible to cook for her family food that is “real, local, nutritious, and delicious”. She is really excited to be on the KCG team since she feels strongly that educating our kids on how to eat nutritiously is one of the very best gifts we can give them.

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Liz Weiss is co-author of The Moms’ Guide to "Meal Makeovers: Improving the Way Your Family Eats, One Meal at a Time!" Liz is co-founder of the free, online “Meal Makeover Moms’ Club” and a regular contributor to Kiwi magazine. She is a sought-after speaker and cooking instructor, lecturing to professional groups across the country and conducting cooking classes for mothers’ groups, PTAs, and community organizations. Her advice has been featured on hundreds of TV shows and in magazines and newspapers including CNN, the Today Show, PBS, The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nick Jr. Family Magazine, Parenting, Child, and many more. For nearly two decades, Liz wrote and reported on nutrition and health for CNN, PBS, Time Life Medical, ABC Boston, Ivanhoe Broadcast News, and others. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of nutrition with the students of Kids Cooking Green. Currently, she lives in Lexington, MA. with her husband and two sons, ages 12 and 9.

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Joy specializes in pediatric nutrition, wellness, and weight management, as well as sports nutrition for competitive and recreational athletes. After working in finance for several years, Joy received her MS in Nutrition from Boston University, completing her Dietetic Internship at Boston Medical Center. Joy has been the in house nutritionist at Cambridge Healthworks Fitness Centers for Women since April 1995. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Dietetic Association and is currently a member of the American Dietetic Association, SCAN ( Sports, Cardiovascular and Nutritionists). Continuing to spread her knowledge of a well balanced dinner plate to children, Joy joined Kids Cooking Green in 2008. She teaches kids to eat a colorful diet, and to take the time to read a label. Ultimately, she makes nutrition FUN!

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Sheridan has been passionate about photography for most of her life. Being educated as a photographer at a young age, she has parlayed her knowledge into all aspects of the field, from photography, to management, to sales and marketing. She has also been quite passionate about food. Having 2 children has given her a new vantage point on what is important. Being quite disillusioned with what's in food, how it is made, and how long it travels to get to us, she has made it her mission to educate her kids on what food really is, and were it comes from. Her kids have both participated in, and loved, the Kids Cooking Green program over the years . Sheridan is currently using her photography skills to document Kids Cooking Green classes. Her photos are shared with parents, which enables them to further discuss the lessons their kids have learned in class.

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Jeff has farmed family land in Sutton, MA. since 1981, with his wife, Martha. They have 5 children who are the 10th generation on the farm. He graduated from Bates College with a B.A. in Economics, focused on statistics. Jeff participated in farmers’ markets from 1981 until 1999. He was one of the first farmers to accept Farmers Market Nutrition Program Coupons in the MA pilot in 1986. Since 2000, Jeff has served as the Executive Director of Mass Farmers’ Markets, (MFM) a 501 (c) 3 charitable non- profit organization whose mission is to partner with farmers, consumers, and communities to foster, enhance and sustain farmers market in Massachusetts in order to improve regional farm viability, consumer nutrition, and community social and economic development. Jeff is a founding board member of the National Farmers’ Market Coalition and serves on the boards of multiple agricultural associations in MA. He was recently selected by Governor Patrick to serve on the newly formed Massachusetts Food Policy Council. Jeff has been an instrumental consultant to Kids Cooking Green, and Mass Farmers Markets provides added support as the fiscal agent.

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Howard has been assisting Kids Cooking Green in developing our short and long term strategy to allow Kids Cooking Green to grow to its fullest potential. Howard was formerly of Interactive Data Corporation, a financial information and media company, where he focused on strategy, strategic partnerships, joint ventures and acquisitions. He is now an independent business consultant with focus upon developing strategic growth strategies companies. He graduated, Cum Laude, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a BA in economics in 1980 and received an MBA from Northeastern University in 1982.

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Janet brings her experience in high tech to all things farm-related in Lexington. She designed and maintained the website for the first five years of the Lexington Farmers' Market and now designs and maintains the Kids Cooking Green site. She loves to offer local nonprofits technical consulting under the name "Locally Grown Software", but most of Janet's time is spent these days as President of the Lexington Community Farm Coalition (LexFarm), a nonprofit that she co-founded with others from Lexington upon the Town's purchase of Busa Farm in 2009. LexFarm is dedicated to education about farms, farming and sustainable land use, and is working to establish a community farm in Lexington – a farm in Lexington where Kids Cooking Green could visit and learn!

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